


The Actuality Club

by findingbetty



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Friends to Lovers, Lols, Misunderstandings, Slow Burn, Terminological Inexactitude
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-29
Updated: 2018-02-21
Packaged: 2019-02-08 05:26:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 24,923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12857715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/findingbetty/pseuds/findingbetty
Summary: Fake roommates, fake relationships and fake college presentations.A story of being honest with yourself, and honest with others.





	1. Gathering

If there was one thing Betty was sure of, it was that this was very much a now or never sort of situation.

With less than half the academic year to go, her college days rapidly were drawing to a close, and she was acutely aware of it. Time was slipping away so quickly it felt rather like she couldn't keep up, like every opportunity was the last chance to make something happen, the chance to make or break. She leaned forward and inspected her appearance more closely in the mirror, brushing a loose eyelash off her cheek. She blinked a few times, and then flipped her hair over her shoulder.

There was a knock at her bedroom door, only faintly audible over the muffled sounds of chatter and laughter coming from the room next door.

"Come in!" Betty called.

In the reflection of the mirror, she saw her bedroom door open, and her roommate Jughead come into view. He looked mildly stressed.

“You're still in here?" he said, sounding both disbelieving and exasperated. "Betty, are you planning on making an appearance any time soon at this function you’re supposedly hosting?” 

Betty turned around and rolled her eyes at him. “This function _we_ are hosting,” she corrected. “You live here too.”

He could be so melodramatic sometimes.

In all fairness, though, said function had not really been his idea. In fact, Betty hadn't really even run it by him when their friend Veronica had proposed their apartment serve as the location for what she'd referred to as a ‘small social gathering’. This was mostly because Betty had suspected he would say no. Though generally friendly and easy-going, Jughead was not known to be the most enthusiastic host. He also tended to be, perhaps justifiably, a little skeptical about plans that were hatched by Veronica. Veronica had a track record of throwing slightly wild parties, was something of a social butterfly, and loved drama almost as much as drama seemed to love her.

While Betty could understand Jughead might be hesitant about the proposal, in this instance Veronica's intentions seemed well-meaning enough, and she'd offered to handle the majority of the hosting duties anyway. Betty had felt a little guilty about the covert nature she'd gone about organising all of this, but had opted to break the news to Jughead gently when it was too late to uninvite everyone. He'd been predictably opposed to the idea at first, but had eventually given in and agreed. 

Betty now realised that was likely under the condition she herself actually make an appearance. 

“I’ll be out in a moment,” she placated him, still peering at her reflection in the mirror. This was important. If she was going to charm Archie tonight, a little preparation surely wouldn’t go amiss.

Behind her Jughead let out an exaggerated sigh. He hovered for a moment, as though he might be about to say something else, but then he backed out of the room, closing her door again.

Betty and Jughead hadn't exactly discussed her debilitating and hopelessly all-consuming crush on his friend Archie, but she suspected him of having at least some awareness that this was the case. Jughead was quietly observant, and he was also fairly perceptive. He had a tendency to pick up on things that other people missed. She hadn't mentioned to him that Veronica had, in part, orchestrated this gathering to provide Betty with an opportunity to get Archie alone, but Betty thought there was a high chance he might have been able to deduce that for himself.

When Betty did eventually emerge from her room, it became immediately apparent to her why Jughead had seemed a little stressed. She'd been aware there was a fair amount of commotion coming from the main area of the apartment, but it was only now that she realised what Veronica had marketed as a ‘small social gathering' seemed to include not only most of their mutual friends, but also friends of friends she didn’t even recognise.

The apartment was spacious enough for her and Jughead, but as she wove her way through the crowds of people, it occurred to Betty that it wasn't really that well suited to a group already in excess of thirty. In her quest to find Veronica, Betty encountered several other people she knew, all of whom were in various states of intoxication.  She was greeted by alternating shrieks of delight and emotional, alcohol induced hugs. 

Veronica was eventually discovered to be in the kitchen. “Oh! There you are!” she exclaimed. “I was starting to think you weren’t coming.”

“Ha. Ha.”

Betty’s lack of humour did little to dampen Veronica’s enthusiasm. She handed Betty a drink, and then nodded unnecessarily at the crowds of people occupying the apartment. “Great turn out, huh?”

Veronica seemed pleased. Betty registered a degree of concern that several more people she didn't know seemed to have just arrived, but nodded in agreement anyway. She was pleased _for_ her - pleased that people had showed up, and pleased that people seemed to be enjoying themselves. She was even more pleased to see Archie over in the corner, engaged in what looked to be reasonably jovial conversation.

Veronica followed her gaze. “So,” she said, as the two of them watched Archie. “Tonight’s the night?”

Betty took a sip of her drink and nodded again. There were very few people she’d really confided in over the years about her feelings for Archie, but Veronica was one of them. Indeed, it was Veronica who had managed to convince Betty that, if Archie was so very important to her, then she should possibly consider working up the courage to do something about it.

That was easier said than done. But as Veronica had pointed out, this was the last semester of the last year of her degree. There were not unlimited chances at the things you wanted in life, and now seemed to be as good a time as any to try and finally make what she wanted a reality.

“Do you need backup?” Veronica asked, still observing Archie intently.

Betty tipped her head back and sculled the rest of her drink, returning it the the kitchen counter with a flourish.

“No,” she said, steeling herself. “I’ve got this.”

 

&&&

 

Betty still had vivid recollections of the first time she'd met Archie. They'd been assigned as lab partners in the elective psychology paper she'd taken in her first year. 

Archie had proven to be something of a liability. He'd been perpetually distracted, was a little reckless in his approach to collecting data, and Betty'd had to rewrite a substantial amount of their joint lab report. But what he lacked in discipline and understanding of social psychology, he did more than make up for in social skills. He was friendly and charming in a way that made it almost impossible not to find him endearing. He was also in a band, and he had a nice smile and great hair.

To complicate matters, Archie was wildly popular, and Betty had silently joined a long list of admirers. She'd also gone on to join his extended friend group; a vast network, but with fairly enduring ties. And here she was, several years of pining later, still unable to let go of what else could possibly be.  

At least now she had a plan afoot. 

That said, it was true that she didn't have it all quite as under control as she would have liked. Despite what she'd told Veronica, an hour later, things were not really going as planned. For starters, there had been rather more people involved in her attempts at conversation with Archie than she would have liked. Archie had a lot of friends, and he seemed fairly intent on talking to every single one of them. This in itself was problematic, and not especially conducive to Betty’s plans. But even more problematic was that she kept being interrupted by Jughead. He kept seeking her out to express his concerns about the dishevelled state of their apartment, and the increasingly inebriated state of its occupants.

It was true that someone had knocked over a potted plant, somebody else had taken to the fridge with a permanent marker, and multiple drinks had already been split over the carpet. But Jughead’s concerns about all of this seemed to grossly outweigh those of Veronica’s - to whom the apartment actually belonged - and for that reason, Betty was really struggling to be interested in his plight. She was on a mission here.

When she’d dismissed Jughead’s concerns for the umpteenth time, and went to phase herself back into casual conversation with Archie, she realised he’d been joined by a girl she didn’t even know.

_Great._

“Oh Betty,” Archie said casually, “this is Valerie.”

Betty smiled at Valerie, who was probably nice enough, but whose current presence was fundamentally quite inconvenient.

“Do I recognise you from somewhere?” Valerie asked.

This was the kind of conversational question one asked when they weren’t quite sure what else to say, and Betty very much doubted Valerie did actually recognise her.

“Don’t you work in the university library?”

Okay, so maybe Valerie did recognise her. Betty did, in fact, work in the central library. “Yeah,” she nodded. “Just part time. Just to help cover the rent.”

Valerie smiled and nodded back. “And how do you know Archie’s friend Jughead?” she went on, apparently still intent on making polite conversation.

Betty wasn’t sure how to redirect the flow of this conversation, wasn’t sure how to redirect Valerie, wasn’t sure how to redirect this entire evening.

“Betty lives here,” Archie chimed in.

“Oh!” Valerie said in acknowledgment, in Betty’s view finding this piece of information much more interesting than necessary. “And how long have you and Jughead been dating?”

“Wait...what?” Betty said, now confused.

Archie laughed. “Betty and Jughead aren’t dating,” he told Valerie. “They’re just roommates. He moved in here when Veronica moved out.”

“Ohhh, I see."

Betty was now wishing she could see a way out of this conversation, but short of going to get another drink, she was a little short of exit strategies. “I’m going to get another drink,” she said hastily.

Archie looked a little confused, and that might have had everything to do with the fact that Betty was not typically a 'going to get another drink’ kind of girl. But desperate times called for desperate measures, and also she wasn't good enough at thinking on the spot to dream up anything else up.

“Nice to meet you,” Valerie smiled, waving in farewell.

Valerie actually _was_ nice, Betty thought as she left the two of them to it. And that was the worst part.

 

&&&

 

Betty did get another drink. For that matter, she got several more drinks. She vaguely recalled despairing to Veronica in the kitchen later that evening that all had not gone as planned. Then she remembered very little at all, which turned out to have been due to an extended, alcohol induced nap.

There was a first for everything.

It was some time later, in the early hours of the morning, that Betty regained consciousness. Curled up on the couch, she became vaguely aware of Jughead showing out the last of their friends. She sat up as she heard the door close, her head spinning.

“You’re alive.”

Betty chose not to acknowledge this, instead leaning forward and burying her face in her hands.

“You alright?”

“Yes,” she replied, her voice muffled by her hands.

Betty heard the rustle of a plastic bag. Through the gaps between her fingers, she saw Jughead enter her line of vision, and set about filling a rubbish bag with red cups and goodness only knew what else. It seemed to be irrepressible, this uncontrollable need of Jughead’s to keep their apartment clean. She thought it might be partly to blame for his dislike of hosting such events, but found it unlikely he would ever admit that. In much that same way he would never admit all of this cleaning could easily be done in the morning, though Betty was hardly in the mood to argue with him.

“It didn’t work,” Betty said after a  while, slowly recalling the events of the evening, and unable to keep the small sadness out of her voice.

“What didn’t work?” Jughead asked patiently, now starting to clear glasses off the sideboard.

It took all of Betty’s energy to sit back up and rearrange herself. She stared up at the ceiling, noting it was still spinning a little. “Archie,” she sighed, suddenly compelled to air the unfortunate end to several years worth of angst. “I don’t think he’s going to fall in love with me.”

There was a long pause, during which Jughead seemed to be thinking of an appropriate response to this uncharacteristically emotional, drunken confession. That he didn't express surprise seemed to confirm what Betty had earlier suspected - he was more clued in to the delicate balances in her life than he let on.

“I don’t think anyone’s going to fall in love with me,” she added when he didn't respond, more for dramatic impact than anything else.

This time Jughead scoffed, having now moved on to stacking stray glasses in the dishwasher.

“You don’t sound very sympathetic,” Betty said, summonsing as much indignance as was possible in her current state. It was rare that Jughead offered sympathy, but she rather felt that now would have been an appropriate time for him to do so.

“We can’t always get what we want,” Jughead said shortly, punctuating this statement by closing the dishwasher a little more loudly that was probably necessary.

Out of Betty's peripheral vision, she saw him cross the room to the couch she was in. The cushions to her right sank a little as he collapsed down next to her.

He didn’t say anything.

“Are you mad at me?” Betty asked tentatively. “For Veronica’s party?”

Jughead gave the sort of half hearted laugh that was mostly just exhaling more air than usual out of his nose. “No, I’m not mad at you.”

“You seem mad.”

“I’m not mad, Betty. I’m a little unhappy with all this mess, but I’m not mad.” He paused. “I’m sorry things didn’t work out with Archie.”

“Me too.”

To suddenly be discussing the topic of Archie in this kind of detail was a little odd, though perhaps not entirely unexpected, in a hazy kind of way. The kind of hazy that was born out of too much alcohol, and feelings of vulnerability, and the possibility that maybe everything you’d been hoping for wasn’t going to work out.

“Did he leave with anyone?” Betty asked quietly.

“Yes.”

“Was it Valerie?” she prodded, knowing the answer but needing to ask anyway.

Jughead didn’t reply immediately, but when he did he simply repeated himself. “Yes.”

There was a long silence while Betty wallowed in this, and then she leaned over and rested her head on his shoulder. “I think I need more alcohol.”

“I don’t think that’s what you need,” Jughead said flatly.

Betty lifted her head and gazed at him, waiting for him to make eye contact. Willing him to give her some answers. But he stared blankly ahead, stoically refusing to look at her.

In years to come, Betty would never quite be sure what propelled her to do so, but out of nowhere she leaned over and planted a kiss on Jughead’s mouth.

Perhaps it was best blamed on the alcohol.

She pulled back immediately, and now that he was finally looking at her, it was with an expression of absolute bewilderment.

“I don’t think that’s what you need either,” he said, sounding amused.

Betty shrugged in dejection. “I just wanted to be sure."

She could tell the follow up question was on the tip of his tongue. For all his outward appearance of calm, collectedness, there was something a little less sure in his eyes. Something that made it very clear he knew precisely what was happening, and that he perhaps wasn’t altogether opposed to it.

“And… are you?” he finally asked, his voice quiet.

Betty breathed out slowly, then shook her head.

There was only the smallest window of opportunity to consider regret, and to wonder if this was perhaps not one of her best thought out decisions. Betty cast it aside, instead leaning in and kissing him again.

And this time, she felt him kiss her back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tbc - would love to hear from you :-)


	2. From Now On

The very first thing that Betty registered when she woke up was that it was imperative she find a bathroom.

For a moment, that was really all that concerned her. Between her intense nausea and splitting headache, she was largely out of mental capacity to deal with anything else. And then she rolled over and collided with someone else, and just like that her concerns multiplied.

Betty gasped, scrambled a little to shuffle back, and then peeked an anxious eye open.

_Jughead._

It was all coming back to her. It was foggy, and parts of it were blurred, but if Betty really thought about it properly, Jughead had actually been rather more a feature of her evening than usual. She wasn't entirely sure of to what extent, but she’d now registered she was at least wearing her bra and underwear, and that had to count for something.

Jughead’s eyelids seemed to flutter a little at the sudden commotion. He rolled a little further into his pillow, but otherwise went on sleeping.

It took Betty less than ten seconds to surmise that the best way forward from here was to quickly and quietly extricate herself from the situation. That said, as easy a conclusion as it had been to reach, it was rather less easy to follow through on. Betty’s bed was pushed up against the wall, and as the person closest to the wall, the only way she could envisage making an escape was going to entail climbing over Jughead.

That seemed risky. That seemed like something that would _definitely_ wake him up.

But she was running a bit short of other options, and her stomach was churning such that she was also running out of time. Betty wriggled a little to free herself from the sheet she was tangled up in. And then, with as much precision and care as was possible in her current state, and doing her best to minimise her movements, she sat up and proceeded to climb delicately over Jughead’s sleeping form.

She’d all but made it when, without warning, Jughead rolled over. Betty lost her balance and collapsed somewhat haphazardly on top of him,

“Shit,” Jughead mumbled blearily, sitting up as Betty scrambled off him and off the bed.

Her worst fears had been realised. He was awake.

“What are you doing?” Jughead's voice cracked through all five syllables, though that doing nothing to disguise his utter bewilderment.

“I’m making a discrete exit,” Betty retorted, doing her best to regather herself and resume her mission to the bathroom.

"Why didn't you just wake me up?" he asked. He still sounded half asleep.

"Because that would have been awkward!"

"And this _isn't_?"

Betty thought it best not to answer that, and went about searching for an item of clothing. Absolutely any item of clothing, anything that would mitigate more time than necessary spent walking around in this state of undress. She grabbed an old oversized t-shirt that lay discarded on the floor, and scarpered for the bathroom.

Hunched over the toilet, Betty began to reconcile that her entire morning thus far had been very out of the ordinary. She was not, by nature, a heavy drinker. It was a rare occurrence that she drank enough to encounter a hangover, and even rarer that she found herself unable to recall parts of her evenings. Furthermore, Betty had never unexpectedly woken up in anyone else’s bed - let alone the bed of her roommate. She was reasonably confident nothing hugely regrettable had taken place. Her hazy recollections seemed mostly to feature a lot of kissing, and at some point both of them had discarded more clothes than was necessary and ended up in her bed. She wasn’t sure what Jughead’s excuse was, but she supposed hers was that she’d been a little drunk. That emotional, needy kind of drunk that blurred your inhibitions and made everything seem like a better idea than it really was.

None of this really meant anything, but that didn’t make it any less awkward. It was awkward to wake up in your roommate’s bed in any case, but even more so when it was Jughead. She’d known him for a good three years by now, and he had been her roommate for the last six months. In all of those years, she’d never been lead to believe he was even faintly interested in more than friendship. Nor, for that matter, had she encountered any romantic feelings for him of her own.

All of which really begged the question of why she’d woken up next to him.

In the interests of preserving their friendship, and what was left of their roommate boundaries, Betty wondered if perhaps she and Jughead could pretend that whatever happened had, well,  _never_ happened. Or perhaps they could just pretend it was inevitable, and move forward without delving into it any further. Either way, pretending really did seem like the best option at this point. Betty found herself hoping that, while she was busy throwing up vodka, Jughead would traipse off to his room, and then they could both move forward with their weekend in feigned ignorance.

But that was apparently not to be so. Upon emerging from her ensuite, she found Jughead was still there. He was perched awkwardly on the edge of her bed, his hair mussed up and brows knitted in deep thought. Betty gave him the kind of nonchalant look that didn’t really convey anything, but which she hoped might encourage him to leave.

He didn’t leave. Instead, he cleared his throat in a hesitant kind of way. “Feeling any better?” 

“Not really.” It was blunt, but it was also very true.

“Oh.”

The was an uncomfortable pause.

Betty took a deep breath. “Look, about last night-”

“-Betty, it’s fine,” Jughead interrupted hastily. “We don’t have to talk about it.”

Betty felt an overwhelming wave of gratitude towards him. Somewhere in the back of her mind she’d wondered if perhaps he'd expect an explanation. She’d wondered if she was somehow supposed to explain that all of this had somehow arisen out of self pity, and crippling disappointment and years of feeling invisible. That it didn't mean anything, and that maybe it was all just because they’d both been a little drunk - her more so than she really liked to admit. 

But because he didn’t ask that of her, she brushed this idea aside. “Okay,” she said. “That’s good. I’m all for pretending it never happened.”

Jughead scratched his head absentmindedly. “Technically nothing did,” he shrugged.

At least Betty now had confirmation of that. “Precisely,” she quipped. “So really nothing’s changed.”

“Not at all,” Jughead agreed quickly.

"And it didn't mean anything."

"No it didn't."

“It’s not weird.”

“Nah.”

“And it won’t be awkward."

“Nnnnope.”

The very awkward silence that followed seemed rather to contradict this closing statement, but regardless, Jughead stood up and picked his sweater up off Betty’s bedroom floor. He paused briefly to make eye contact with her one final time, smiled appeasingly, and then walked calmly out of the room.

Jughead closed her door behind him, and Betty was left to collect her thoughts, her regrets, and what very little was left of her dignity.

 

&&&

 

Having had a little more time to reflect on the events of the night before, Betty found herself in slightly more positive spirits by the time the afternoon rolled around. Such was always the way. The more time you had to distance yourself from poor decisions, the easier it was to dissociate from them entirely, and pretend they had been through no fault of your own.

Betty hadn’t seen Jughead since this morning, something she suspected he might have orchestrated on purpose. While their agreement to move forward in feigned ignorance was in place, Betty was still relieved to have a little space. Time to get used to the idea, time to nurse her hangover, and time to conduct her share of the cleaning up.

Jughead’s cleaning efforts the night before had been pretty thorough. Most of the rubbish had been disposed of, the majority of the cups and plates washed, and the mess from the broken potted plant swept away. In terms of fall out, the most problematic thing was that the fridge still read I LOVE REGGIE in angry, permanent black marker.

Betty was fond of Reggie. When he wasn’t vandalising their fridge, he was actually very nice. While prone to making poorly thought out decisions, as evidenced by his self implicating scrawl, she appreciated his friendship, humour and loyalty. Ordinarily, Betty would have been highly concerned about the long term implications of Reggie’s actions - with respect to both her relationship with her landlord, and the risk that posed to her tenancy bond. But since her landlord was technically Veronica, and since Veronica had technically instigated the proceedings that led to Reggie’s vandalism, Betty didn’t quite feel the usual overbearing weight of responsibility.

Veronica’s wealthy parents had purchased the two-bedroom apartment for their daughter at the beginning of her degree, wanting to ensure she had suitable ongoing accommodation throughout her tertiary studies. Located only a short distance from campus, the apartment was safe, modern and well-appointed. As one of Veronica’s closest friends, Betty had been lucky enough to have spent most of her university career as Veronica’s roommate. Until, that was, the beginning of their last year, when Veronica had announced she would be moving out to live with her girlfriend Cheryl.

At the time, Betty had been a little hurt. As much as she’d been happy for Veronica, she’d been saddened by the idea of their living arrangement coming to an end, and saddened by thought of the potential impact that might have on their friendship. Having only ever lived with Veronica, she was also extremely apprehensive about the idea of having to find a new roommate.

However, as these things often do, everything had turned out okay. Their friend Jughead had been searching for a new apartment for his last year, and had taken over Veronica’s room. Betty wasn’t sure what kind of arrangement Veronica had come to with her parents about this, considering the apartment had been purchased for her specifically, but the details of that had never really come up. Technicalities aside, Betty had been pleasantly surprised by how easy a transition it had been. And as much as she missed Veronica, the two of them had successfully maintained their close friendship.

Jughead was easy to live with, easy to talk to and just generally easy going. He was also funny, albeit in a dry, sarcastic sort of way, and he wasn't one to pry for information that wasn't offered to him. Betty thought that may have been because he wasn't particularly forthcoming himself. Despite having known him for all of these years, she still found him to be something of enigma. And as a direct consequence of all of this, it had been very easy to reach a silent agreement about roommate boundaries. Neither of them got overly involved in the intricacies of the others' life. They shared similar hours, similar interests, and a little of the cooking, but that was about it. Everything was just simple and  _easy_.

Well, it _had_ been. Until Betty got drunk and kissed him, and then spent the night with him in her bed.

She cringed just thinking about it, and then remembered that was why they’d agreed to pretend it had never happened, and tried to redirect her train of thoughts. 

If there was one good thing about her drunken misstep last night, it really had served as an excellent distraction from her previously all-consuming misery about Archie. There was nothing like a new negative development in your life to distract you from an old one.

Betty had just finished emptying the recycling bin and was on her way back upstairs when Veronica called. She paused a moment before answering, mentally trying get her story straight, and then swiped the screen to answer.

“Hello?” Betty said, trying to sound upbeat. She unlocked her apartment door and dragged the empty recycling bin back inside. 

“Hiiii,” Veronica trilled.

“Hey V. How are you doing?”

“I’m glorious! Isn’t it such a nice day?”

Betty turned around and peered out the window. It actually did look to be quite a nice day. But having not been able to face the world in her hungover state, she hadn’t quite realised this until just now. “Yeah,” she said, trying to inject a little spirit into her voice.

“Are you hungover?” Veronica asked, correctly inferring this from Betty’s half-hearted attempt at enthusiasm.

“A bit, yeah.” This was a severe underestimation. 

"What happened after I left last night?"

"Nothing much. Jughead cleaned up, I went to bed."

Veronica laughed on the other end of the line, seeming not to notice Betty's forced nonchalence. “So I’m guessing you don’t want to come for a walk with me and Cheryl on this beautiful afternoon?”

Betty very much did not want to join Veronica and Cheryl for their work, though that was rather more multifaceted than her just being residually hungover. Although she’d never been brave enough to admit it to Veronica, Cheryl had always terrified Betty a little. She had something of a sharp personality, and a slight tendency to make rapid fire cutting comments. As much as Betty put up a good front of being friendly, she was always a little reluctant to spend more time with Cheryl than was entirely necessary.

“Not really,” Betty said. “Not today.”

Veronica laughed again, and Betty marvelled at how she was in such fine spirits after last night - though in all fairness Veronica was typically much better than her at handling her alcohol.

“Okay, well I’ll see you tomorrow?” Veronica pleaded.

“Of course," Betty reassured her. "Have a nice afternoon.”

Betty ended the call, and dropped her phone onto the kitchen counter. She dragged herself over to the couch and, for the second time in twenty four hours, collapsed down onto it a somewhat dejected state.

She really needed a nap.

 

&&&

 

Betty woke later that afternoon to the sound of Jughead arriving home. Before she’d even opened her eyes, she registered he had someone else with him, and immediately recognised Reggie’s dulcet tones.

The couch lurched a little as someone sat down in the free space at her feet.

“Hey Betty,” she heard Reggie say, his voice jarringly loud in contrast to the earlier silence. 

“Sshh,” she mumbled. “I’m sleeping.”

“It’s 4pm,” he said incredulously, shaking her foot.

Betty opened her eyes and rubbed the sleep out of them a little, sitting up to glare at Reggie.

“Reggie, leave her alone,” Jughead called from the kitchen. “I specifically asked you to come over and clean this shit off the fridge.”

Betty and Reggie both looked over to see Jughead brandishing at the fridge, visibly irritated.

“It looks good though,” Reggie argued halfheartedly.

Betty watched Jughead fix Reggie with the kind of death stare that quite clearly threatened unpleasant consequences. “I does not look good,” he intoned. “Please fix it.”

Reggie sighed heavily, hauled himself up off the couch, and went over to make amends. 

Jughead and Reggie’s friendship had always intrigued Betty. As far as individuals went, one would struggle to find two people with quite so many differences. For a long time, Betty had assumed that they were really only friendly because they were both good friends with Archie. But since living with Jughead, she’d come to see that perhaps they shared more of an understanding than she’d originally thought. There was something about Reggie's brash exterior that offset Jughead's dry, sarcastic manner. They balanced each other out surprisingly well.

Jughead looked reasonably pleased with himself when Reggie sat down in front of the fridge, cleaning materials in hand. He turned to Betty. “Thanks for cleaning up.”

“S’all good.”

“I would have helped.”

“No it’s okay. You did most of it last night,” Betty reasoned.

Jughead nodded slowly, and a slightly tense silence followed. The kind of tense silence that indicated it was easier said than done to forget about the events of last night.

Reggie turned around, suddenly in possession of inconveniently accurate intuion, and glanced back and forward between the two of them. “What’s gotten into you two?”

“Nothing!” Betty and Jughead said in unison, a little too hastily for it to be convincing.

Reggie smirked. “Are you suuuurreee?”

“Yes,” Jughead said, sounding awfully defensive. “We just…” He trailed off uncertainly.

“We just had an argument about cleaning,” Betty interjected quickly, having noticed Reggie’s interest at where Jughead's admission might be going.

Reggie looked disappointed in this faux revelation. Behind him, Jughead’s furrowed brow indicated a degree of contempt that that was the best Betty cover-up story had been able to dream up.

“Okay,” Reggie said slowly, glancing around the impossibly clean apartment. “That sounds unnecessary, but okay.” He paused. “Like, this apartment is way cleaner these days than when Veronica lived here.”

“That’s because Jughead cleans obsessively,” Betty went on, ignoring Jughead’s glare and improvising wildly. “I complained to Veronica about it behind his back. And since he found out, we’ve been avoiding the topic because it’s awkward."

Jughead shook his head, apparently now in utter disbelief.

“Would we say that’s awkward?” Reggie pondered, finding this sufficiently anticlimactic that he’d returned to scrubbing at the writing on the fridge.

“Yes,” Jughead said dryly, having been left no other option but to play along.

“Well, I’m sorry for making things awkward,” Betty said, glancing at Jughead apologetically so he knew what she was referring. “I should have thought about the consequences of my actions," she added. "I wasn’t thinking.”

Jughead met her eye, and sighed heavily. She knew he recognised this as a genuine apology that had nothing to do with cleaning. “I know," he said . "It’s okay.”

And in that moment, Betty knew he meant it. They could move past this.

Reggie stood up abruptly, abandoning his duties altogether. “Right,” he said. “Well I really want you guys to remember that I helped you work through that. Because I have to tell you, I don’t think this shit is going to come off.”

He had the decency to look moderately guilty. The three of them stared at Veronica’s fridge, the angry lettering still very much there, if a little faded.

“Lucky you both love me," Reggie quipped.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for the positive response to the first chapter. I was pleasantly surprised! And as a direct consequence, here is the second.
> 
> As per usual, I have pretty inopportune update timing. I dunno, maybe you can read it while you wait for the next episode. But if you're interested in more of this, I would love to hear from you <3


	3. Showing Up Like This

By the time mid week rolled around, things were largely back to normal.

Betty had returned to full health, and, in the wake of indirectly workshopping the incidents of Saturday night with Reggie, she felt rather less awkward about being around Jughead. True to their word, neither of them had brought up the matter again. Pretending, as it turned out, was actually very easy.

Academic life went on. The new week brought forth new deadlines and new social commitments. Betty’s schedule at this point in the semester was fairly relaxed, allowing her to rise at a reasonable hour on Wednesday morning, and prepare and eat her breakfast at a leisurely pace. The same could not be said for Jughead, however, who had an important in-class assessment taking place mid-morning, and seemed to have been up since some ungodly hour in a desperate attempt to do some last minute cramming. Accordingly, he was very flustered.

Betty sat primly at the kitchen counter as she finished the last of her blueberry porridge. She watched as Jughead rushed from one side of the room to the other, gathering stray belongings and assembling everything he needed for the day ahead. It was uncharacteristic of him to be in such a state of disorganisation. Then again, their week hadn't gotten off to very characteristic start. 

She’d lived with Jughead for long enough, by now, to know that this was the kind of mildly panicked mode that didn’t really welcome input. Typically, he did not take well to being told to calm down. And so all she could really do was observe as he first  misplaced his keys, then couldn’t find his preferred sweater, and later paused to rifle hastily through a textbook in search of some crucial piece of information he’d forgotten. Finally, he spent a good five minutes searching for his beanie, which turned out to have been in his room all along. Probably right where he’d left it.

Eventually, looking a little weary but slightly less frazzled, Jughead came over and dropped his bag on the kitchen counter. Betty looked up from the culinary magazine she had been perusing.

He exhaled dramatically. “I hate these assessments.”

“I know,” Betty sympathised. “I feel stressed on your behalf.”

“Thanks.” Jughead checked his phone. “I have ten minutes before I have to leave.”

Betty didn’t like to point out that this might have been avoided by approaching his morning more calmly.

“I can’t go over my notes again,” he added, more to himself than for Betty’s benefit. “I’ll go crazy.”

Betty shrugged, trying not to be annoyed by the way he was now drumming his fingers on the kitchen counter. “Just sit for a minute,” she suggested. “Breathe.”

“Nope. Can’t do that either. I need you to distract me,” he said desperately. “Tell me what’s new in life.”

Betty quirked an eyebrow. “I’m actually busy here too,” she pointed out, gesturing at her magazine. “Besides, nothing’s new.”

“Oh come on,” Jughead pressed. “What about the all consuming, hopelessly inappropriate crush on Archie?”

“Hey!” Betty warned, indignant that he'd cross this unspoken boundary. “That’s not up for discussion. You’re not even supposed to know about that.”

“Well,” Jughead smirked, “I do now. So let’s talk about it.”

Betty closed her magazine, still reluctant to be dragged into this discussion, but tired of dealing with the morning’s dramatics. “If you must know,” she said, pausing to take a sip of her tea, “I saw him yesterday while I was at work.”

“At the library?”

“Yes.”

“Did you talk to him?”

“No.”

Jughead gave her an amused sort of look she didn’t appreciate very much.

“He was with Valerie,” Betty went on. “And they were studying. At the same table.”

“That is outrageous.”

Betty disregarded this sarcasm. “Veronica saw them there on Monday evening too.”

“Maybe they’re just friends,” Jughead suggested reasonably. “Archie hasn’t even mentioned Valerie to me.”

“Okay," Betty said, also disregarding this very plausible explanation, "but Veronica also saw them having lunch together at Frankly Sandwiches in the Link yesterday." She another sip of her tea.

Jughead shook his head at Betty’s reluctance to let this slide. “Okay,” he mimicked, “then maybe Archie’s trying to make you jealous. I don’t know what you want me to say.”

Betty spluttered on her tea. “I didn’t want you to say anything! You were the one who brought it up.”

There was a short pause while Betty finished choking on her tea.

“Though you do raise an interesting point,” Betty added when she'd finally recovered. “Because if he is trying to make me jealous, I suppose it’s kind of working.” She sipped her tea again. “Maybe I should try and make him jealous too.”

Jughead laughed. “How?”

“I don’t know,” Betty shrugged. “I haven’t thought through the logistics. But I’m sure I can find _someone_ to study and eat Frankly sandwiches with.”

“Reggie would love that,” Jughead chuckled. “And seeing as you already love Reggie,” he added, gesturing at the fridge, “the whole ploy would actually be really believable.”

This time it was Betty’s turn to laugh, though admittedly in a half-hearted, dejected kind of way. She’d been doing quite well at not dwelling on this so far today. And yet somehow she’d managed to get sucked into overthinking everything again - by Jughead, of all people.

“Look, I’m sure Reggie would be more than willing to help out with that,” Jughead said, now sounding a little more serious. “But how about I just ask Archie what the story is with Valerie?”

Betty stared at him suspiciously.

Jughead rolled his eyes. “I won’t give away any of the details,” he intoned. " _Obviously."_

“Hmm,” Betty said, deciding to instill a little faith in him. “That would be very helpful. Thank you.” She picked up her magazine and opened it at random under the guise of renewed concentration.

Jughead chuckled. “Have a good day, Betts,” he said, picking up his bag and making to leave.

“Good luck,” she called as the door closed behind him.

 

&&&

 

Betty walked back from university later that afternoon in heavy rain. Having finished class for the day, and being fully up to date with all of her readings, she'd found herself at something of a loose end. She supposed she should have been grateful for the slight lull in her academic commitments, especially given Jughead’s busy day. Instead, she found herself wondering how she was going to occupy her afternoon.

It was always difficult to fully appreciate free time until you didn’t have any.

Arriving home, Betty hung up her raincoat and dried off a little. She'd reached the decision she would spend the afternoon curled up on the couch reading her book, but paused briefly to survey the state of the apartment, and wondered if it might be in her best interests to put some things away before she settled down.

Betty wasn’t messy, per se, but she hardly adhered to Jughead’s level of obsessive cleaning and tidying. In light of his 24 hours of academic stress, the apartment wasn’t looking quite as orderly is it might usually. For the most part, Betty tried not to leave her belongings lying around for too long. The was because Jughead inevitably tidied them away somewhere she couldn’t find them. And as good as he was at finding homes for things, he was quite as good at remembering where those homes might be.

Keeping this in mind, Betty opted to put a few of her belongings away. She also cleared some stray dishes, set a load of laundry to go, and threw out some overripe fruit. And then, feeling reasonably accomplished, she retrieved her book and curled up in one of the stray blankets on the couch. It was always nice to be snuggled up, cosy and warm, listening to the faint patter of rain outside. As interesting as her book was, Betty found herself so warm and comfortable that she thought it couldn’t possibly hurt if she was to just rest her eyes. She drifted in and out of consciousness for a while, even though she’d only been meaning to close her eyes for just a moment, and then--

The apartment door burst open and collided with the wall behind it, causing a loud bang. Betty sat up abruptly, startled, her heart beating rapidly. Veronica was standing in the doorway, shaking the rain off her umbrella.

“Oh,” Betty said, registering the large puddle of water pooling at Veronica’s feet, and feeling slightly annoyed. “It’s just you.” She watched as Veronica then proceeded to double over, and suddenly realised she was quite clearly very out of breath.

“Is everything okay?” Betty asked tentatively.

Veronica stood back up, gasping for breath, and shook her head.

“Okay,” Betty said slowly, wondering if she was perhaps expected to guess what the problem might be.

“Betty,” Veronica gasped, “I need you to help me.”

Veronica’s tone was uncharacteristically panicked. Now slightly worried, Betty scrambled to get up off the couch. “What is it? Also...did you _run_  from class?”

“My parents are here.”

Betty stared at her blankly. “That’s… a nice surprise?

“No!” Veronica replied, now slightly frantic, and still breathing heavily. “It’s not a nice surprise. It’s a _huge_ problem. I never told them I moved out, and now they want to come and have a look at the apartment!”

Realisation dawned on Betty. “Oh,” she said unhelpfully, suddenly feeling a little sick. “Oh no.”

“Exactly." Veronica seemed now to have recovered somewhat, and her manner was now more brisk. “So we have to make it look like I never left.”

Betty glanced around the room, taking in Jughead’s bookcase, the clothes rack drying his laundry, and various neat piles of his belongings. “When are they coming?” she asked.

“In ten minutes time.”

_“What?”_

Betty, now registering panic herself, watched as Veronica jogged over to the drying rack and picked the whole thing up, clothes and all.

“Yes!” Veronica emphasised, now doing her best to carry the awkwardly shaped drying rack towards Jughead’s room. “So we have to hide all traces of Jughead...” Veronica trailed off as she disappeared into his room.

She reemerged moments later. "We'll just move everything into his room and hope for the best," Veronica proposed anxiously, gathering everything in sight. "His laptop...those notes...that sweater...come on, Betty, his sweater!"

Betty sprung into action as instructed. She rounded up Jughead’s text books, several folders of documents, two sweaters, and tossed everything in an untidy heap on his bed. They unplugged his laptop and sound system, and relocated both items to his bedroom. Betty glanced back at the untidy tangle of cords and felt supremely guilty, but also supremely relieved he wasn’t home. At least they didn’t have to hide him.

“What are we going to do about that bookcase?” Veronica despaired, pausing to check the time on her phone.

“We’ll just tell them you like reading now.”

“They’ll never believe that!”

“Well we’ll tell them _I_ like reading,” Betty said flatly, staring at Reggie’s artwork on the fridge, and thinking the bookcase was the least of their worries. She made a beeline for the first loose piece of paper she could see, and then darted back to the fridge. She arranged it over Reggie’s scrawl, and made use of several of their less conspicuous fridge magnets to hold it in place. She stepped back to consider the effect, and hoped Veronica's parents wouldn’t inspect it closely enough to realise it was a stray page of Jughead’s course outline.

Veronica finished mopping up the puddle of water by the entrance that she’d left upon arrival. Betty was outraged as she saw Veronica toss the damp towel in the washing machine with her clean laundry, but there wasn't time to have an argument about it. 

“Oh god, they’re here,” Veronica said anxiously.

Betty went over to join her at the window. They peered down five stories to where a black car was pulling up outside the apartment block.

“Is that a limo?” Betty asked, mildly intrigued.

“Yup.”

“That’s awfully fancy--”

Veronica grabbed Betty by the arm, and looked at her very seriously. “We need more time.”

Betty glanced around the apartment. Bookcase aside, there was very evidence left of Jughead’s residency, but it was true the apartment now just looked a little dishevelled.

“Okay,” Betty agreed. “I’ll go...push all the buttons in the elevator so it takes ages to get to the ground floor.”

“Good idea,” Veronica said triumphantly, endorsing Reggie’s most irritating habit for the first time ever.

 

&&&

 

Childish though Betty may have felt, the few extra minutes gained by delaying the elevator turned out to be fairly crucial. She came back to discover Veronica had done something of a final clean-sweep, and hidden several more items she’d deemed superfluous to their feigned roommate act.

Betty did register a reasonable amount of concern about this. It was all very well for Veronica, but Betty was the one who was going to have to deal with the fallout of all of this when Jughead returned home and discovered his room now most closely resembled a storage cupboard.

“Am I allowed to ask why you didn’t mention you’d moved out of the apartment?” Betty asked tentatively, as together they rearranged and then fluffed the couch cushions.

“Ahh,” Veronica said arily, draping a blanket elegantly over the L-shaped couch as a final touch. “It just didn’t come up.”

“Right,” Betty said, rathering wishing it had, but feeling it best not to mention that right now. “I see.”

“I didn’t really think it would be a problem. They hardly ever visit.”

There was truth to that. In the several years that Betty had known Veronica, she’d only met her parents twice, and only once had she known them to come and have a look at the apartment. Of all people, Betty knew that parental relationships could be complicated, so she was hardly one to judge. But given what little she had gathered about Veronica’s upbringing - an only child who seemed, out of necessity, to have been on the cusp of adulthood since a remarkably young age - Betty had always felt a little for her. For all Veronica’s pretence of indifference, Betty had long suspected she harboured a deeply ingrained need to live up to expectations. And if ever there was to be proof of that, it was conceivable that this might be it.

Veronica checked her phone yet again, and, as if on cue, there was a knock at the door. Betty watched Veronica steel herself. “Just follow my lead, okay?” she said, glancing back at Betty as she walked over to the doorway.

Betty nodded.

The door opened, and Betty watched on as Veronica greeted Hermione and Hiram Lodge. They swept inside, all hugs, indignation about the rain, and apologies about the short notice.

“Hello Betty, dear,” Hermione said warmly, turning to acknowledge Betty’s presence.

Betty smiled and offered hugs, even though she wasn’t sure if that was what was expected of her. She never quite knew what was expected of her in the presence of the Lodges, even when she wasn’t pretending she still lived with their daughter.

“And how’s the apartment?” Hiram asked after brief pleasantries had been made, surveying it with the air of someone who actually wasn’t that interested in the answer.

“It’s great,” Veronica said easily. “Warm, quiet, free of distractions. We’re very lucky.”

“Plenty of time to focus on your studies I imagine?” he enquired.

“Absolutely,” Betty affirmed.

“It looks well kept,” Hermione noted. “If a bit empty.”

“It’s something new we’re trying,” Veronica gushed. “Betty’s very into minimalism.”

Hermione and Hiram looked slightly confused, but nodded politely and didn’t enquire further. _Minimalism?_ Betty waited until they were looking the other way before frowning at Veronica, who in turn poked her tongue out.

The two of them watched nervously as Hermione went over and read the page of Jughead's course outline Betty had put on the fridge. Hiram stood at the window, hands in his pockets.

“Well," Hiram said, eventually turning around. "We just wanted to see how everything was going. You know, seeing as it’s been a few years and all.”

“I’m so glad you’re here,” Veronica replied, genuinely beaming - though likely only, Betty thought, because somehow they seemed to be pulling this off. Neither Hiram or Hermione seemed interesting in seeing anything beyond the common area. Maybe it was all going to be okay.

“I don’t suppose you girls are free this evening?" Hiram asked. "I'd like to take you out for dinner.”

“I would love to,” Veronica said. “But I know Betty has a presentation due tomorrow, right B?”

All three of them turned to Betty expectantly. Betty cleared her throat. “Yeah, I do,” she lied, feeling immensely grateful to Veronica. “So maybe not tonight. But thank you so much, I would have loved to come.”

“That’s a terrible shame,” Hermione said. “Perhaps later on this week?”

Betty caught Veronica’s eye, and knew in that moment that news of the Lodges’ extended visit was brand new information to her as well. “Maybe,” she smiled. “I have quite a busy--”

The apartment door burst open, yet again, and Betty and Veronica watched in horror as Jughead traipsed in, dripping water everywhere.

“Urghh,” he grumbled, completely unaware of the presence of Veronica’s parents. “Fucking elevator’s broken again--”

He stopped abruptly as he looked up, a look of confusion spreading over his face. “Hi,” he said awkwardly.

Betty gulped, and then starred very hard at Jughead in the vague hope that he would somehow understand the complexities of this situation. Veronica, however, seemed not to miss a beat.

“Mum, Dad, this is Jughead. Jughead, these are my parents, Hermione and Hiram.”

Hermione smiled warmly at him, and Hiram stepped forward to shake his hand. “Nice to meet you,” he said

“Same to you, sir,” Jughead replied, looking mildly terrified.

“And who is Jughead?” Hiram asked, turning to his daughter,

Jughead, to his credit, seemed to realise this was not a question he was allowed to answer. He glanced at Veronica, eyebrows raised. For the first time, Betty saw Veronica look mildly panicked. They had been _so_ close to pulling this off.

“Ahhh,” Veronica stalled. “Jughead is…our friend. I mean…he’s Betty’s friend, really.”

Betty winced. For Veronica, an apt liar, this was not particularly convincing.

“He’s actually Betty’s boyfriend,” Veronica said finally, suddenly sounding much more certain.

It was lucky that both Hermione and Hiram were looking at Jughead, because there was nothing Betty could have done at this point to hide her absolute astonishment. There was a moment's opportunity to cast Veronica a particularly appalled look, and then Betty had no choice but to say, “Yes. That’s right.”

Jughead, to his credit, had managed not to react at all. He was now nodding along convincingly while Veronica improvised wildly, informing her parents he was here to assist Betty with preparing her presentation. And before Betty had fully processed what had just happened, Hermione and Hiram had arranged for Veronica to go to dinner with them that evening, and for Veronica’s pretend roommate Betty and her pretend boyfriend Jughead to join them later on in the week. After they had finished working on their pretend presentation.

Veronica, seemingly relieved that she’d avoided a major crisis, and with what Betty felt was a distinct lack of regard for how _Betty_ might deal with the fallout of all this, bid them farewell and hurried her parents out of the apartment.

The door closed, and Jughead turned to Betty with a particularly unimpressed look.

“So. Where’s all my stuff?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not quite sure how I ended up here. This started out largely as an exercise in overcoming writer's block, but every time someone leaves a comment more of this seems to unfold.
> 
> So thanks! What a team effort X


	4. The Fundamentals of Friendship

_“So. Where’s all my stuff?”_

Jughead was staring at her expectantly.

“Ahhh,” Betty stalled, unsure how best to explain to him that she and Veronica had just spent the last half an hour doing their best to pretend he didn’t live here. “It’s all in your room,” she said carefully. “We had a bit of an... awkward situation.”

“I gathered that.”

Betty chewed her lip nervously. “I don’t want you to be mad.”

“I’m already pretty mad,” Jughead replied, his voice disconcertingly level. “Dinner with the Lodges on Friday night? That’s a joke, right?”

She wished it was, she really did. Only earlier that afternoon Betty had been lamenting how little she had to do. Now she had to finish a pretend presentation so she could go to dinner with her pretend roommate and her pretend boyfriend.

It rather seemed like the universe was trying to teach her a lesson.

Betty sighed heavily. “Veronica never told her parents she moved out,” she explained. “And then they called to let her know they were in town, and that they wanted to come and see her.”

Jughead was nodding slowly. “Okay,” he said, apparently processing all of this. “Okay, I can understand that. And I can _also_ understand the bit where Veronica lied about me being here to help you with your fake presentation. But, if you don’t mind me asking, why am I also your fake boyfriend? Why can’t I just help you with your presentation as a friend?”

“Huh,” Betty said, now wondering that herself. “That’s a good idea. Why didn’t Veronica just say that?”

Jughead rolled his eyes in an even more exaggerated fashion than usual.

“Okay, well anyway,” Betty said hurriedly, not wanting them to dwell on this for longer than was necessary. “It’s only one dinner. I’m sure we can manage that, y’know, for Veronica. And I promise we’ll help you tidy up and re-organise your--”

“No!” Jughead injected, suddenly audibly irritated. “You guys aren’t re-organising _anything_ for me. And you can tell Veronica I can’t come to dinner. I’m busy.”

“Doing what?”

“It doesn’t matter. Just make something up.”

“Like what?” Betty said helplessly. “That’s _her_ forte, not mine.”

“You can tell her I’m busy moving back into my apartment!” Jughead countered, raising his voice a little.

“But I said we’d help you with that!” Betty was angry now that he was being so uncooperative. This wasn’t all  _her_ fault.

The tense silence that followed seemed to swallow up the apartment in its entirety, neither of them willing to back down. But they were saved the inevitability of having to reach an immediate compromise by a sudden knock at the door.

“Oh good,” Jughead said sarcastically. “More guests. Would you like to hide me too this time?”

Betty ignored him and went over to the door. She peered nervously through the view hole, praying it wasn’t Veronica and her parents, praying they hadn't forgotten something and come back. She breathed a sigh of relief and opened the door.

“Hi Reggie.”

Reggie invited himself inside. “Sup Betts.”

“Why are you here?” Jughead asked, rather rudely.

“Always a pleasure, Jughead,” Reggie acknowledged. He turned to Betty. “Got locked out of my apartment.”

Betty sighed. Reggie had an affinity for locking himself out of his apartment. Since Betty and Jughead lived not far away, she’d had an extra spare key cut for him, and until recently had managed to maintain guardianship of it for such occasions.

“We don’t have your spare key, Reggie,” Betty said. “You didn’t give it back to me after the last time you locked yourself out.”

“Yeah I know,” Reggie shrugged. “I just figured you guys would be home.” He hoisted himself up onto the kitchen counter and glanced around the apartment, seeming to register something was amiss. “Did one of you move out?”

Jughead made a strangled sort of noise that obviously conveyed anger, and that had Betty immediately concerned. The way she saw it, the only way this situation could get any worse was for Reggie to get wind of it.

“We’re kind of in the middle of something here, Reggie,” Betty said vaguely. She glanced over at Jughead, silently pleading with him not to elaborate further.

“We’re not in the middle,” Jughead argued, staring very intently at Betty. “This is only the very beginning.”

Reggie leaned over and helping himself to an apple from the fruit bowl. “I thought the two of you kissed and made up last time I was here?”

Betty briefly recalled Reggie’s previous visit, and took a moment to appreciate he didn’t know quite how much truth there was to that statement.

“You thought wrong,” Jughead retorted, seizing the opportunity presented by Betty’s silence. “Betty hid all of my belongings from Veronica’s parents and pretended I didn’t live here.”

“Hey!” Betty said defensively. As much as she appreciated Jughead leaving out the finer details of the situation, she didn’t appreciate the insinuation that she was solely responsible for this situation. At worst, Betty was an accomplice. “I was only trying to help Veronica!”

“I’m still very unhappy about it.”

“We didn’t have a choice!”

“Yes, you did.”

“Why does it even matter that much?”

“It would matter to a lot of people, Betty.”

Reggie sat there chewing his apple, eyes darting darting from Betty to Jughead and back again. He raised his hand. “Uh, it wouldn’t matter to me.”

“Yes it would, Reggie,” Jughead countered. “You don’t know what this is about.”

Betty closed her eyes briefly, and ran her fingers through her hair. Couldn’t they leave Reggie out of this?

“If Betty and Veronica reorganised my apartment, would it matter to me? No,” Reggie said matter-of-factly. “Same as I would't care if behind my back Betty told Veronica that I cleaned too much. Jesus. You two are ridiculous.”

“It’s more complicated than that, Reggie.”

“Yes,” Betty agreed, “but it was a difficult situation, and we did the best we could. And now I’m apologising. And telling you that I’ll talk to Veronica.”

“Thank you.” Jughead’s response was terse but reasonable. “But I’m still mad at you,” he added.

“I suppose that’s fair.”

Betty wasn’t sure what exactly she was going to say to Veronica, but there seemed to be no other option. It was very apparent that Jughead wasn’t at all willing to be dragged further into this, and for that she could hardly blame him. Perhaps Veronica would have to settle for just having her fake roommate attend the dinner.

“Wow,” Reggie said, tossing his apple core lazily across the kitchen and into the waste disposal. “I did didn’t know better, I’d say that had all the makings of a lovers’ quarrel.”

Jughead huffed in irritation, and disappeared off into his bedroom.

Reggie shook his head disapprovingly in Betty’s direction, and jumped off the kitchen counter. “Thank god for me."

 

&&&

 

By Thursday afternoon, Betty still hadn’t broached the subject of the Lodge family dinner with Veronica. In fact, she hadn’t seen Veronica at all.

She was starting to suspect that may have been intentional on Veronica’s part. It wasn’t until after Betty’s last class on Thursday that they finally crossed paths, and, when they did so, Betty got the distinct impression Veronica had been doing her utmost to prevent that from happening.

“Veronica!” Betty called, training her eyes on the back of Veronica’s head so she wouldn’t lose her in the crowd of students spilling out of different lecture theatres. She saw Veronica pause, and then turn around and wave.

Betty fought her way through the crowd in Veronica’s direction.

“Hey Betty! What’s up?”

 Betty raised her eyebrows disapprovingly. “I haven’t seen you all day.”

“I know, I know. I’m sorry. Busy times.”

Up close, Veronica did actually look a little more stressed than usual. It made Betty feel all the little more guilty about what she was about to do, but that was hardly her fault. Jughead had left her with no choice. The two of them had barely had a conversation since Reggie had left yesterday afternoon, and this morning Jughead had still been making pointed comments about not being able to find some of his things.

“Look, Veronica,” Betty began, unable to keep the apologetic tone out of her voice. “About that dinner tomorrow-”

“Oh yes!” Veronica said suddenly, either choosing or failing to recognise Betty’s tone. “I’m so sorry. I forgot to confirm the details with you. We’ve reserved a table for five tomorrow night, 7pm at Neighbourhood Company.”

Betty rocked back on her heels. “Sounds fancy.”

“It is,” Veronica continued. “You’ll need to wear something reasonably nice. Apparently the food is amazing and-”

“Veronica,” Betty interrupted hastily. She had to shut this down. “Look, I’m really sorry, but Jughead can’t come.”

“Why not?”

Veronica had the audacity to look surprised. It occurred to Betty that it was awfully presumptuous of Veronica to have discounted this possibility, but now was not really the time to get into that.

Betty held the door open for Veronica. “He has work.” That was nice and simple and non-negotiable.

Veronica frowned, following Betty outside. “Isn’t the university bookshop closed on Friday night?”

Betty had been counting on Veronica not knowing this, but luckily she had a backup plan. “Yeah, but they’re doing a stocktake.”

“Oh. Well, that’s a problem.”

“Is it, though?” Betty asked skeptically, as the two of them made their way across the courtyard in the direction of the university library. “Does it _really_ matter if we have dinner without my fake boyfriend?”

“Well kind of, yeah. It’s just, I’m skating on thin ice here. I spent all last night being interrogated about my life. I don’t think they suspect anything, but I was relying on you guys to deflect the attention a bit. And also, they kept asking about you and Jughead, so I had to say you were really happy together,” Veronica rambled on. “And now they’re looking forward to getting to know both of you a bit more tomorrow evening and--”

“--you said Jughead and I were _happy_ together?”

“I didn’t have a lot of choice,” Veronica said, her turn to now sound apologetic.

“Have you told them about Cheryl?”

Veronica laughed derisively. “God no, I can barely keep my story straight as it is. I hardly need to introduce more variables. Especially ones as volatile as Cheryl.”

Betty gave a half-laugh, the best she was able to manage given the predicament she’d found herself in.

“Look,” Veronica said, sighing heavily, as they came to a halt outside the university library where Betty was due for work any minute now. “Can’t Jughead take Friday off work just this once?”

“I can’t asked him to do that, Veronica. Besides,” Betty said, ready to vocalise her biggest concern about all of this. “What if one of us says the wrong thing and gives the whole game away?”

Veronica shook her head, dismissing this immediately. “I’m sure you’ll both be fine. Just let me talk to Jughead, okay?” she pleaded.

Betty had run out of arguments. But since she was sure Jughead would have plenty, she shrugged and gave in. “Okay.”

Veronica looked relieved. “You’re the best, B.”

“I know.”

“Let me know how work goes, yeah? If Archie and Valerie show up?”

In amongst all the kerfuffle over the last 24 hours, Betty had completely forgotten about the little matter of Archie and Valerie. The reminder brought about an unpleasant sinking feeling.

“Yeah, I will,” she agreed, waving at Veronica as they parted ways.

 

&&&

 

Betty’s library shift was almost disappointingly uneventful.

She spent the better part of her evening reorganising sections A, B and C of the fiction shelves into correct alphabetical order. This exercise had once been a source of immense frustration for her, irritated that it was necessitated by the laziness of her peers. However, having learned to accept lazy students for what they really were, it was now an activity she actually found somewhat therapeutic.

Somewhere in the middle of her shift, two of the printers on the ground floor were reported to have stopped working. On closer inspection, it transpired they’d both just run out of paper - an issue that was fairly easily rectified. Most dramatically, she’d had to tell off a group of first years for eating particularly crunchy chips in the quiet zone. Betty had been met with looks of utter discontempt, and had honestly felt a little draconian. But to their credit, the group had relocated as requested.

Archie and Valerie appeared not to have attended another study date. At least, if they had, they had been very discrete about it. Betty hadn’t seen them. Now, walking home through campus, she pulled out her phone to text Veronica news of this development.

_No sign of Archie and Valerie_

Veronica’s reply came through almost immediately.

_Hmm_

This wasn’t a very helpful response. Betty watched her screen, waiting for Veronica to elaborate. Three little dots appeared, then disappeared, and then reappeared. And then a photo of Veronica flashed up on Betty’s screen. She slid her thumb across the screen and answered the call.

“Hello?”

“Hey B, how was work?”

“Yeah, it was fine. No sign of Archie and Valerie,” Betty repeated.

“Mmm,” Veronica acknowledged, sounding thoughtful. “I think we might need to deploy someone to do a little snooping on that front.”

“I actually asked Jughead to ask Archie yesterday,” Betty remembered. “Before...you know, before everything.” She wasn’t so sure he’d be willing to help anymore.

“That’s a good idea,” Veronica encouraged. “And speaking of Jughead,” she segued, “I talked to him this evening.”

Betty grimaced a little, prepared for the worst. “Oh no...”

“Oh yes,” Veronica said, now sounding triumphant. “He agreed to come to dinner tomorrow.”

It took Betty a moment to process this. She had barely given consideration to the implications of Veronica being successful in her quest to change Jughead’s mind about going to dinner. It hadn’t really seemed like it was a huge possibility. “He did?”

“Yeah. He’s going to take the evening off work.”

“Right,” Betty said, still not sure how to feel about this, and wondering what Veronica could possibly have done to convince Jughead to fake sick from his fake work shift.

Silence hung between them.

“Look, I know you really don’t want to do this, but it would mean so much to me,” Veronica pleaded. “Really. And I promise I’ll make it up to you.”

If ever there was anyone who could be relied upon to follow through on a promise to 'make it up to you’, it was Veronica. She was typically prompt and generous in the repayment of her debts. It was also true that Veronica didn’t ask favours of people very often, least of all of Betty. Given Jughead was apparently now on board, Betty was left with very little option but to agree.

“Okay, Veronica. I’ll be there.”

She heard Veronica breathe a sigh of relief down the phone. “Thank you so much, B. I love you. You’re the best.”

“Yeah, well,” Betty replied skeptically. “We’ll reassess that after dinner tomorrow.”

“It will be fine. I have complete faith in both of you.”

Veronica went on to express her surprise that Jughead was still distinctly unimpressed that they’d moved all of his belongings. Betty, now a little distracted by thoughts of what tomorrow evening might hold, made only vague affirmations in response.

They didn’t end their call until she reached her apartment block. Betty was irritated to discover the elevator was ‘out of order’, and that she was going to have to climb all five flights of stairs to her apartment. It had been playing up ever since her efforts to delay the Lodges’ arrival yesterday, so Betty really had only herself to blame. That was true of many of the events over the last two days, she supposed, including the part where she had entertained the idea of engaging a fake boyfriend to make Archie jealous.

As Betty rummaged through her bag in search of her keys, she very much hoped her new fake boyfriend had forgotten about that particular conversation. If not, it was going to be a hard one to live down.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all your lovely comments and kudos. They really do make all the difference!


	5. Just Go With It

Betty had a string of classes on Friday morning, followed by her final shift for the week at the library. It was the kind of tedious day that was really only made bearable by the promise of a weekend of freedom, and in this case made only worse by also having to overcome the inconvenient hurdle of dinner with her fake boyfriend, her fake roommate, and her fake roommate’s intimidating parents.

Needless to say, Betty was finding it difficult to approach the day with any real enthusiasm.

Jughead had been fairly short with her when she’d arrived home last night, though Betty supposed that was fair enough. After all, he hadn’t asked to be dragged into any of this. He’d also had a reasonably stressful week at university (even without having to help her prepare a fake presentation), and she still wasn’t quite sure what Veronica had done to convince him to go along with her ridiculous scheme. All things considered, Betty was prepared to let it slide.

Besides, his brisk attitude, coupled with the melodramatic reaction to her and Veronica having moved a few of his belongings, was all very atypical of him. Betty knew Jughead well enough to know that he was unlikely to maintain this frosty front long term. Hopefully, after dinner, and after Veronica’s parents had departed, everything would fall back into place. They could just add this whole debacle to the list of things they were already pretending hadn’t happened this week.

The week that never was.

None of these considerations made breakfast any less awkward, however. Betty ate her blueberry porridge in silence, while Jughead stood at the kitchen counter, poring over a text book. Everything felt very tense, the kind of tense that was not going to be conducive to a convincing dinner as a couple later in the evening.

It couldn’t hurt to try and make amends somewhat, Betty thought. When neither of them had exchanged words for over ten minutes, she asked, “Do you have many classes today?”

“Yup.”

“Oh.”

More awkward silence ensued. Betty  _hated_ this. It wasn’t enjoyable, it was making her feel guilty, and it was also making her feel nervous.

“Jughead,” she began timidly, trying again. “I really am sorry. I never meant for any of this to happen. It was really unfair of us to just, I don’t know, expect you to go along with everything. If I could go back--”

Jughead cut her off with a heavy sigh. “It’s okay, Betty. I know.”

Betty frowned, having not expected him to give in so easily.

“It’s not really anyone’s fault,” Jughead said carefully, visibly dropping his guard somewhat. “I mean, we’re the ones who have been reaping the benefits of Veronica’s fancy apartment. It’s just one dinner, and then we can forget about all of this and move on.” Jughead looked up and met Betty’s eye across the kitchen counter. “And I’m sorry too. I’m sorry I overreacted. It’s just been a weird week, and I’ve been really busy, and...yeah…” He trailed off, sounding uncertain, but genuine.

“Okay,” Betty agreed, grateful he’d at least overcome his irrational and uncharacteristic outburst. “Thank you. Just one dinner. We can manage that.”

She wanted to add that what she _really_ wanted was for everything to go back to normal. For things to go back to the way the had before Veronica had dragged them both into this mess, but also back to the way they were before she’d kissed him last weekend. Because even though it hadn’t meant anything, and even though they’d agreed to pretend it hadn’t happened, Betty still felt a little like it was hanging over their heads. Perhaps it was the uncanny circumstances they’d found themselves in since, or perhaps it was simply a result of all the conflict Veronica had stirred up this week. Either way, Betty was struggling to set aside her feelings of regret. But now didn’t seem to be the time to bring this up.

Instead, as an afterthought, Betty added, “It might even be kind of funny, this dinner thing.”

Jughead paused in the midst of gathering some paperwork together and stared at her disbelievingly.

“Or it might not be,” Betty corrected herself hastily, immediately regretting vocalising this passing thought.

Jughead shook his head in mild amusement. “Be careful what you wish for,” he murmured, returning to what he was doing. “By the way, I talked to Archie.”

“Oh?” Betty was genuinely surprised by this. She’d assumed he'd now be reluctant to follow through on that offer. But then, he was a person of his word. This was just indicative of who he was, and it made Betty feel a little guilty all over again.

“Yeah. I asked him what the story was with Valerie.”

“And what did he say?” Betty probed, doing her best to maintain a neutral expression.

“He said he didn’t know.”

Betty raised her eyebrows slightly. “That was very unclear of him. Thank you for asking him, but that’s decidedly unhelpful on his part.”

“Well, yeah,” Jughead shrugged. “But hey. At least this way you know you’re still in with a chance.”

There was truth in what he said. While Archie’s vague response had clarified very little, at the very least it seemed to confirm that Archie and Valerie were not quite the thing of certainty she’d led herself to believe. That had to count for something.

Betty rinsed her plate in the sink, and then stacked it in the dishwasher. She checked her schedule one more time, and finished packing her things for class.

“I’m going to have to go straight to dinner from work,” she told Jughead. “So I’ll meet you there a little before seven?”

Jughead nodded. “Sounds like a plan.”

“Try and have a good day,” Betty offered apologetically.

Jughead gave a half laugh. “Yeah, you too.”

 

&&&

 

Despite everything, Betty did actually have quite a good day. She got through the morning’s classes with little fanfare, and then spent some time catching up on her readings. She bumped into Reggie around lunchtime, and stood in line with him briefly while they queued to pick up some Frankly Sandwiches.

“How’s your grumpy roommate?”

Betty rolled her eyes. Reggie was never one to let anything go. “He’s fine,” she replied, feeling buoyed by the fact she could at least say that reasonably honestly. “He was just having a bad day.”

“Seems like he’s having a bad week, if you ask me.”

“I didn’t ask you, Reggie.”

Reggie shrugged. “Maybe you should have. Still, things could be worse. You could be sharing that apartment with me.”

Betty fixed him with a particularly unimpressed look. “I’m not going to even  _pretend_ to entertain that idea.”

“Maybe you should pretend,” Reggie suggested. “It would be good practice.”

Betty’s stomach dropped. Reggie couldn’t possibly know about her and Jughead’s, hopefully short-lived, ‘pretend’ relationship. Who could have told him?

“Practice for what?” Betty asked in a level voice, feigning only passing interest.

Reggie frowned at her. “Practice for Archie’s music video,” he said, as if this was the most obvious thing in the world.

Betty stared at him blankly, relieved that this wasn’t what she’d thought it was about, but nonetheless completely confused. “What music video?”

“You know,” Reggie went on, despite the fact that Betty blatantly didn't know. “Archie’s filming a new music video for his super depressing song--”

“--which one?” Betty interjected. Almost all of Archie’s songs could be described as ‘super depressing’, and it suddenly seemed quite pertinent that she know this piece of information.

Reggie looked at her skeptically, as if he was no longer sure he should be sharing this. “I dunno,” he shrugged. “They’re all pretty depressing. But the point is, he was looking to cast someone in in his video. And Veronica suggested you.”

They’d reached the front of the line now, and so Betty was given a moment to process this startling revelation while Reggie placed his order, and then further time still while she placed her own.

“So did Veronica not tell you any of this?” Reggie asked hesitantly, after they’d both paid, and as the two of them headed back outside with their sandwiches.

“Erm,” Betty said, casting her mind back to her conversation with Veronica last night, and contemplating Veronica’s promise make everything up to her. “I think she might have vaguely mentioned it," Betty lied. "I’ll have to ask her about it.”

“Maybe I wasn’t supposed to say anything,” Reggie said as they sat down, entirely unconcerned.

They ate in comparative silence. Reggie had his laptop out, and paused every so often to type more of the essay he apparently had due later that afternoon. This last minute dash to meet deadlines seemed to Betty to be a reasonably frequent occurrence for him. Normally, Betty might have offered to proofread it for him, but she was due to start her shift at the library iminently. So she when she’d finished eating, she bid him farewell and left him to it.

The library was always quiet on a Friday afternoon. For the most part, students seemed to give up around the midday mark, to pack up their textbooks and their laptops and head home. Accordingly, there was very little for Betty to do. At one stage she spent the better part of half and hour searching for a reference book someone had put back on the wrong shelf, but that was really the only noteworthy incident.

Having finally located the book, Betty returned to her issue desk to find two students waiting for assistance. One of them was an overearnest guy in one of her journalism classes that Betty didn’t like very much, and behind him was Veronica.

Betty apologised to the guy from her class for the wait, and it turned out he’d just been wanting to clarify the library opening hours over the exam period. Exams were still months away, the library typically maintained consistent hours over the exam period, and this question seemed quite a lot like something he could have googled. All of which reminded Betty why she didn’t like him very much, but she answered his query politely anyway, and sent him on him way.

“How can I help you?” Betty asked as Veronica stepped forward.

Veronica ignored this question. “Hey,” she said, dropping her bag unceremoniously on Betty’s issue desk.

Betty sighed, sat back in her chair, and folded her arms. “What’s up?” she asked, because she got the distinct impression something was up, and because she suspected it had everything to do with Reggie’s curious revelation earlier that afternoon.

“So,” Veronica said, in the kind of voice she reserved specifically for her more dubious propositions. “Did you know that Archie’s filming another music video?”

“Yes.”

Veronica looked like this wasn’t the answer she had been expecting, but she pressed on anyway. “Well, a little birdy told me that he was looking to cast a female lead. And it’s possible that maybe, perhaps, I  _might_  have spoken to him and suggested he cast you.”

“I know.”

“You know?” Veronica asked, confused. “How?”

“A little birdy told me,” Betty said, unfolding her arms and leaning forward to rest her elbows in the issue desk. “A little birdy called Reggie.”

Veronica pondered this for a moment. “I guess he and Archie do live together. That makes sense.”

“Exactly,” Betty agreed. “But that’s about the only part that does make sense.”

“Right,” Veronica said, acknowledging Betty’s doubtful tone, and apparently having expected a little resistance. “So, how do you feel about it?”

“I don’t feel very good about it at all.”

“But it’s the perfect opportunity for you to seduce Archie!”

“What, by demonstrating my amateur acting abilities in the music video for his super depressing song? Speaking of which, which song is it?”

“I’m not sure,” Veronica admitted. “They’re all pretty depressing.”

Well, at least there was one thing everyone was agreed on.

Betty sighed. “Did you really think through the implications of this, Veronica? Or were you just trying to alleviate your own guilt about this dinner thing?”

“A bit of both.”

At least she was honest.

“But also,” Veronica said, dropping her voice and leaning closer to Betty, “until I suggested you, he was very seriously considering casting Valerie.”

“Oh.” Realisation dawned on Betty. Reggie had neglected to mention that crucial detail. “Oh.”

Veronica gave her a self-satisfied look. “There you go. I’m just looking out for you.” She gathered her pile of textbooks back into her arms, watching Betty for a response.

In the end, Betty conceded and gave her a reluctant half-smile. “Thanks.”

Questionable methods and the occasional unavoidable family situation aside, Betty supposed Veronica really did have her best interests at heart. She wasn’t quite sure what was going to become of all this, but now was hardly the time to get into that.

 

&&&

 

Betty tried to keep Veronica’s good intentions in mind as she changed for dinner a couple of hours later. She’d packed a dress and appropriate shoes this morning, because this dinner was going to be difficult enough to get through without the additional complication of feeling underdressed.

Waiting nervously outside her and Jughead’s agreed upon meeting point, Betty found herself conceiving every possible way in which this could go wrong. She could say something stupid, or Jughead could say something stupid, or even Veronica could say something stupid. Somebody she and Jughead both knew could show up and say something stupid. Or she could--

“Betty.”

Betty turned around at the sound of her name to see Jughead hurrying towards her. He didn’t looked even remotely stressed, was uncharacteristically dressed up, and had taken off his beanie. The effect was oddly disarming.

“Hi,” she said quickly, suddenly realising she was staring.

“How was your day? How was your shift?”

“Meh. Nothing to report,” she said, deciding now was not the time to announce her imminent acting career.

“Neither. Are you ready for this?”

Betty chewed her lip uncertainly. His apparent lack of nerves was making  _her_ nervous. But she thought he might have gathered that, because she saw his expression relax a little, and his features suddenly become a little more empathetic.

“It will be fine, Betty,” he said reassuringly. “Like we said this morning, it’s just for one night. And then everything can go back to normal.” He held out his hand.

As she took it, and as he lead her around the corner and down the sidewalk to the restaurant, it struck Betty that this wasn’t a scenario she’d ever imagined herself in. She wasn’t completely unaware of Jughead’s good looks and selective charisma, but somehow all of this had seemed kind of irrelevant when they were just friends, and even more so once they became roommates. But now that she was standing there with him in the restaurant, hand in hand, it all seemed seemed a little more pertinent.

“Table for Lodge?” Jughead asked the waiter.

The waiter nodded, and then lead them over to the furthermost corner where a table was already occupied by Veronica and her parents. All three of them stood up as Betty and Jughead approached. Before Betty had time to entirely prepare herself, she and Jughead were being greeted like the old friends that they were, ever since two days ago.

It was within the first five minutes or so, that it became clear to Betty that she was a truly terrible liar. In fact, she wasn’t quite sure how she’d managed so seamlessly to go along with Veronica’s improvisation earlier in the week. Perhaps if it had something to do with the all the lead up. Sometimes it was a little easier to rise to the occasion on demand, rather than several days later with the additional weight of one’s conscience.

Contrastingly, Jughead was playing his part like a consummate professional. Betty sat there awkwardly, nodding along while Jughead explained that’d both had very busy days, and wondered why he’d been so reluctant to participate in all of this. She then listened to him explain that preparation for Betty’s presentation - the imaginary one that she had almost forgotten about - had gone reasonably well, and made a mental note to be less gullible the next time he told her something that seemed even remotely unlikely.

“So tell us about your studies, Betty,” Hermione prompted, there having reached a natural lull in the conversation after the waiter had taken their orders.

Betty’s mouth was a little dry. She cleared her throat. “I’m still majoring in journalism,” she explained.

“Ah yes, I remember,” Hiram chimed in. “And what plans do you have for after graduation?”

“I’m not quite sure what I’m going to do when I’m finished.”

Hermione and Hiram were still looking at her expectantly, as if doing so might encourage some kind of sudden epiphany. Betty wasn’t sure why all adults were so inclined to do that, to imply that was such an easy question, the answer to which should also come easily.

“I’m trying to be open to whatever possibilities come my way,” Betty added, hoping this would be enough to redirect the flow of conversation.

Hiram nodded slowly, and Betty practically could feel his judgement. “I suppose you’ll have to make a decision fairly soon, then,” he concluded. “What did you say your major is, Jughead?”

“Sorry, I didn’t,” Jughead said easily. “Creative writing.”

“Both arts students,” Hiram observed, more to himself than anyone else. “The pair of you have got your work cut out for you in this economy. Veronica very sensibly followed my suggestion to pursue business studies, but even that doesn’t guarantee you a path to gainful employment these days.”

Betty glanced at Veronica, who looked mortified, and for all the world like she wanted to hide under the table. Despite these circumstances being brought about by Veronica’s own doing, it was in that precise moment that Betty somehow found a whole new level of empathy for her.

What followed was an intensive discussion about Veronica’s own course of study, broadly ranging from her various academic commitments to her parents’ seeming plan for her to achieve world wide domination by the age of 30. Betty watched nervously, increasingly impressed, as Veronica deflected questions deftly, somehow managing to give her parents what they wanted, while also telling them almost nothing at the same time.

“And do you have plans beyond graduation, Jughead?” Hiram queried, redirecting his attention once more.

“No,” Jughead said simply, in what Betty felt was a remarkable display of loyalty.

Betty knew this to be a lie, and she felt a rush of gratitude towards him. Of all of her peers, Jughead had always been the one who seemed to have the clearest idea of what his future might hold. For as long as she’d known him, he’d only ever wanted to write. Not only was he very good at it, but Betty knew he had also secured a graduate role. He knew  _exactly_ what he was doing next year.

“We might take a gap year,” Betty heard Jughead say, and she registered some alarm that this conversation was now charting very unfamiliar territory. She glanced briefly at Veronica, only to see her looking equally nervous.

“What might you do during that time?” Hermione asked, sounding surprised.

“A bit of travel perhaps,” Jughead told her, apparently making all of this up as he went along. “I want to go to New Zealand. Maybe see some of Australia. Wherever the wind takes us,” he finished vaguely.

Veronica was staring at him like he was an entirely different person, and for that Betty could not blame her. Jughead had never expressed any desire to visit New Zealand or Australia, nor did he possess the kind of disposition that might allow him to go ‘wherever the wind took him’.

But they were saved from wherever that particular line of conversation might have headed by the arrival of their entrees, the consumption of and discussion about which luckily carried them through until the arrival of their mains.

For all the complications this evening had caused, Betty had to admit the food was delicious. Now that the attention had been redirected from her specifically, she was finding it much easier to play her part. She really needed only to follow Jughead’s lead.

“How long have you two been together?” Hermione asked Betty and Jughead.

Betty realised this was a finer detail they’d neglected to settle on.

“Six months,” Jughead said, barely missing a beat.

Out of the corner of her eye, Betty saw Veronica give a non committal kind of shrug that seemed to indicate she approved of this response. Six months seemed legitimate in Betty’s book too.

“And how did you meet?”

Now that Hermione asked that, Betty found that she couldn’t quite remember.

Jughead smiled warmly. “Veronica introduced us.” He paused, appearing to consider his answer, and then added, “At a party.”

Hermione and Hiram looked slightly shocked, both turning to look disapprovingly at Veronica, who in turn looked disapprovingly at Jughead.

“It was only a small gathering,” Betty said hastily, backtracking on Jughead’s earlier clarification. “Veronica and I, we much prefer to focus on our studies.”

Hermione and Hiram looked only moderately reassured by this, but seemed not to want to question it any further.

They got through dessert without any further mishap, but by the time it was all drawing to a close, Betty was very much over all of this. She wanted nothing more than to lie down and think about absolutely nothing. Hermione and Hiram disappeared momentarily to pay, and Betty, Jughead and Veronica let out a collective sigh of relief. They were so nearly there. The end was in sight.

They bundled back into their coats and made their way outside, Betty and Jughead thanking the Lodges profusely for dinner. All things considered, Betty thought this had gone reasonably well. For all their critical observations and passing judgements, Betty got the distinct impression this was how the Lodges showed they cared. Jughead had thrown a few curve balls here and there - some intentional, and some by accident - but largely she thought they’d made a positive impression.

They were just saying their farewells outside, and preparing to part ways, when Betty heard somebody behind them called, “Jughead!”

For reasons Betty wasn’t entirely sure of, everybody turned around.

Much to Betty’s dismay, she recognised Archie walking towards them, guitar case slung casually over his shoulder. Her heart skipped a beat - though not for the reasons it usually did when Archie was around.

They’d made it so far. They couldn’t let Archie undo all their good work. Betty briefly wondered if she and Jughead could get away with running away, if they could just  _pretend_ not to have seen him. After all, they were getting pretty good at that.

But then she saw Jughead run his hand nervously through his hair and say, somewhat unconvincingly, “Archie, good to see you.”

Archie nodded at Betty and Veronica, who nodded back. Beside her, Betty heard Veronica take a deep breath.

“Archie, these are my parents, Hermione and Hiram.”

There was a brief exchange of introductions, during which Betty could see Veronica mentally calculating how best to get out of this delicate situation. But it was too late, because before she could intervene, Hermione was explaining that they’d just had a lovely dinner with Veronica, and Betty, and Betty’s boyfriend Jughead.

“Huh.” Archie mulled this over, significantly confused.

For a moment Betty felt certain he was going to say something that would cause all of their carefully constructed lies to come tumbling down. But then, Jughead cleared his throat loudly, and wrapped an arm around Betty’s shoulders. He leaned down and kissed Betty casually on the forehead, as if it was something he did everyday.

“We best be going,” Jughead announced, to which the Lodges nodded understandingly. “Thanks again for dinner, was so nice to spend the evening with you.”

Betty smiled slightly helplessly, and waved in farewell.

“Thanks Veronica,” Jughead added. “See you, Archie.”

And with that, she and Jughead turned and walked off, his arm still around her shoulders, and with no choice but to put on a reasonably convincing display of affection.

All Betty had wanted was for this evening to be over, and for things to go back to normal. But now, all she could do was hope that Jughead had a suitable explanation to give Archie about all of this.

If not, it would only be the very beginning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys are my favourite part of this. I truly appreciate all of your encouraging words and kudos x


	6. No Such Thing

Thinking her week had been quite eventful enough, Betty spent a quiet weekend at home.

It was kind of a relief to have some time to herself. She did some baking, watched fourteen episodes of _Brooklyn Nine-Nine,_ and started to come to terms with that fact that she had a real presentation due within the next week, rather than a pretend one. All in all, it was time well spent. By Sunday evening she was feeling well rested and ready for the week ahead, and was just making a start on preparing a lasagna for dinner.

Betty hadn’t heard from Veronica all weekend. She’d received a brief text after dinner, which thanked Betty and Jughead profusely for their efforts, and confirmed Archie hadn’t given the game away. But since then, there’d been deathly silence.

Betty supposed that was to be expected. From what she’d gathered, the Lodges weren’t leaving town until Sunday evening, so it made sense that Veronica would be otherwise engaged until then. Prolonged periods of silence from Veronica typically made Betty a little nervous, because you could never be sure when she would pop up next, nor what melodramatics might have taken place in the interim. But in this case, Betty was just relieved not to have been asked to participate in any more facades. She was more than happy to wait to see Veronica until after her parents had left.

Betty and Jughead had examined their dinner with the Lodges in reasonable detail on the way home. She didn’t think he would ever admit it, but Betty had rather suspected Jughead of having accidentally quite enjoyed the experience. This theory went in some way to explain his relaxed manner and impressive level of cooperation, but it didn’t make it any less surprising.

“I think that went fairly well,” he’d surmised as they trudged home, by then safely out of sight and ear-shot.

“You do?”

“Yeah. I mean, your performance was, how should I say this, questionable?...at times, but I still think we had them convinced. It was good,” he’d decided. “Y’know, until Archie showed up.”

Betty, aware she’d been the less convincing of the two of them and deciding then was not the time to get into an argument about it, had agreed. “Yeah… about that, I was really hoping you might know how we go about explaining all of this to him.”

“You don’t want _Archie_ to think we’re in a relationship? Why ever not?”

This mock horror had warranted him a scowl and a gentle elbow in the ribs. All of this was actually very important. Jughead might have fulfilled his fake-dating obligations, but Betty now had a whole new set of problems to solve.

Only earlier that week, Betty had been considering engaging a fake boyfriend to try and make Archie jealous. But now that she’d been presented with the opportunity to do so, it hadn’t seemed like such a good idea after all. If Betty had learned anything from the past few days, it was that such ploys were much more complicated than they appeared, and much more trouble than they were worth.

All of this needed to be stopped before it got any further out of control.

But equally, she didn’t want Archie to think she was the kind of person who went around making up fake relationships. That really didn’t seem like it would reflect well on her. From Betty’s perspective, everything had become vastly complicated, and was going to necessitate telling even more lies.

As it turned out, though, Jughead had had a fairly simple solution. “I’ll just tell him it was a misunderstanding.”

“A misunderstanding?”

“Yeah. Archie misunderstands shit all the time,” he’d said dismissively. "He probably already thinks that’s what it was.”

That had actually seemed like a good compromise to Betty, and she’d agreed. She could cope with that. What followed had been a brief discussion, in which they’d both agreed the whole experience with Veronica’s parents had given them new insight into some of her more questionable personality traits, but that had been it.

True to their wishes, life from there onwards seemed to resume as normal. The Lodges were not heard from again all weekend, Betty re-established some of her more mundane student routines, and the tension between her and Jughead dissipated altogether.

That said, Jughead hadn’t actually been home for much of the weekend. He’d worked at the university bookshop on Saturday, and then he’d disappeared without providing an explanation on Sunday. This was not unusual on his part. He had a proclivity for disappearing for short periods of time without providing explanations, and was known for being hard to track down. Betty generally assumed him to be somewhere obscure, getting some writing done, but she never knew for sure. It was all part of the enigma.

All of this meant she’d not had a chance to ask him how his conversation with Archie had gone. But there was little that could be done about that.

Betty watched two more episodes of Brooklyn Nine-Nine while waiting for her lasagna to cook. When she’d eaten, she set some aside for Jughead - should he eventually make himself known - and then divided the rest of it into equal sized portions and stacked the containers neatly in the fridge for the week ahead. She folded all of her clean washing, did a little ironing, and then retired to bed earlier than was probably acceptable.

All things considered, it was just nice have everything back to normal.

 

&&&

 

As predicted, Veronica did not make herself known until her parents departed.

They arranged to meet for lunch on Monday, shortly after midday. Betty was lukewarm about this idea, having wanted to use that time to get some work done on her presentation. But since she did actually have the entire afternoon at her disposal, and since she’d already resolved to tell fewer lies this week, she agreed.

Veronica was one of those people who seemed to spend more time meeting people for lunch than almost anything else. She certainly spent more time doing so than she did studying. But that had always been the case, and, if the dinner last week had been anything to go by, she did a good job of pretending otherwise to those who might be concerned. Betty wasn’t about to pass judgement. At least, she wasn’t about to do so out loud.

Betty waited outside the library, a place equidistant from various campus eateries. Veronica was moderately late, but that was nothing new. She made up for it quite considerably by eventually arriving with Frankly Sandwiches already in hand.

“For you,” Veronica announced, dropping one of the sandwiches into Betty’s lap and sitting down next to her.

Betty smiled. “Thanks,” she said, unwrapping the sandwich. “Whatever might I have I done to deserve this?”

Veronica laughed. “You are more than welcome. I can’t thank you enough for your help last week.”

Betty decided not to mention that she’d had very little choice in the matter. “So your parents have left now?” she queried, making a start on her sandwich.

“They have indeed,” Veronica answered, sounding relieved. “Praise be. Hopefully not to be seen around these parts until graduation.”

“Am I allowed to break up with Jughead between now and then?”

“If you think that’s what’s best for both of you.”

Betty cast her a particularly unamused look.

Veronica ignored this, now focussed on unwrapping her own sandwich. “In all seriousness, though,” she said, taking a bite and then chewing thoughtfully. “I think my parents really liked the two of you.”

Betty found that a little hard to believe. “I thought they were concerned for our future prospects, given the state of the economy and such.”

“Oh they are,” Veronica agreed, herself apparently entirely unconcerned about Betty and Jughead's futures beyond academia. “But I think they liked you as people. They said you seemed like you were well suited. They’ll probably be terribly disappointed at graduation to learn that you’ve broken up. But what can you do?”

Veronica seemed to have forgotten that all of this might have been avoided by not constructing a fake relationship in the first place.

Betty changed the subject. “So what happened with Archie after we left?”

“Not much. We just said goodbye and then went our separate ways. He seemed a bit confused.”

“I would hope so,” Betty said dryly. “I still can’t believe he just happened to be walking past like that. Such bad luck.”

“I know,” Veronica agreed. She looked thoughtful. “Although, I almost wondered whether it might work out in your favour. You know, might be a good way to make him jealous, or maybe-”

“-No!” Betty interjected, shaking her head vigorously, appalled that Veronica appeared to have learned nothing from the events of the past week. “No, no, no. How can you even begin to think that’s a good idea? No more lies. I can hardly keep up.”

“Okay, okay,” Veronica placated. “I’m sorry. It was a bad idea, you’re right.”

Betty finished the last of her sandwich. “Jughead was going to tell him it was just a misunderstanding.”

“And did it work?”

Betty shrugged. “I didn’t really see him over the weekend, or even this morning. So I didn’t get a chance to ask. But I don’t see why it wouldn’t. I think it seems pretty plausible.”

Veronica sighed heavily. “Well, thanks again. Like I said, I can’t tell you how grateful I am. And if ever you need a partner in duplicity again, just sing out.”

“Oh I won’t,” Betty smiled. She took the paper wrappings from both of their sandwiches, and got up and went put them in a nearby bin.

When she came back, Veronica was regathering her belongings to head off to class. She paused to ask, “Are you working this afternoon?”

Betty shook her head. “No, but I’ll be in the library anyway. I have to work on my presentation.”

“A fake one or a real one?”

“Ha. Ha. Ha.”

 

&&&

 

The university library was a place of assembly, where long suffering students met to suffer together. Even though Betty spent quite enough of her time there during working hours, she still seemed to make frequent appearances when she had something due. There was something reassuring about shared study sessions. They just made everything seem a bit more manageable.

Her level of familiarity with the library was such that she knew the best places to study uninterrupted, was well versed in which printers to avoid, and had unlimited access to the short term loan section - something that was indelibly helpful when you didn’t want to spend a week’s rent on a new textbook. But most importantly, she also knew where she could reliably find her friends, which was on the fifth floor, off to the right, and by the window.

Much to her dismay, she arrived to find that particularly spot empty. She supposed there was a chance someone might show up later in the afternoon, but for now it looked like she was going to be working on her presentation alone.

There were small mercies though. She didn’t have to fight for a power source to plug in her laptop, she was at liberty to take up as much space as she liked, and the fifth floor was sparsely populated enough for her to eat crunchy food without the risk of being glared at. This last act of rebellion always made her feel a little hypocritical, considering she was paid to tell students off for doing such things, but it was also oddly liberating.

As it turned out, she actually made quite a lot of progress over the course of the afternoon. She was just putting a couple final of touches to her slides and starting her referencing when Reggie made an unexpected appearance. Of all the people who might have showed up to accompany her this afternoon, Reggie was least likely to aide her productivity levels.

“Hey Betty.”

Betty frowned at him. “Ssshh,” she whispered.

Reggie scoffed loudly as he sat down next to her. “We’re the only ones here,” he said, just as loudly. “What’s up?”

Betty rolled her eyes at this question, the answer to which was fairly obvious. “Ssshhh,” she repeated. “I’m working.”

A more pertinent question to ask might have been what Reggie was doing there. Though he’d been known to make appearances over exam periods, it was rare that Betty saw him doing work at all, and even rarer so that he do so in the library. He was typically elusive when asked about his major, seemed only to complete assignments the day they were due, and was known to agree with anyone who was feeling sorry for themselves that Cs got degrees. He was not a compatible study buddy.

“Oh good,” he said, sitting down next to her. “Me too.”

Betty arched an eyebrow at him. “You are?” she asked, sufficiently surprised that she forgot she was supposed to be quiet.

“Yeah. I have another assignment due this afternoon." He seemed entirely unconcerned about this.

Betty watched him plug his laptop in and open it up. “What’s it about?” she asked.

Reggie shrugged. “Business stuff.” He nodded at her journalism textbooks. “You wouldn’t understand.”

Betty huffed in indignance and went back to her referencing. Referencing was always her least favourite part of completing an assignment. She always tried to do it as she went along, but invariably she would reach a point where that became tedious, and she would have to go back at the end and pick up where she’d left off. It was hard to go back retrospectively and find the correct page number and the correct edition of whichever textbook she was using, and sometimes-

“How was your weekend?”

Betty blinked a few times in irritation at the interruption. “It was fine,” she said, turning back to Reggie. “I did nothing.”

“Really?”

“Pretty much.”

“I see.” There was an irritatingly knowing tone in his voice, but he went back to his typing without further questioning.

“What about you?” she asked, mostly out of politeness.

Reggie looked up from his typing, a slightly patronising look on his face. “I’m tryna get some work done here, Betty.”

Betty stared at him dislike. He really was infuriating. She shook her head and returned to her referencing once more.

As much as she did actually like Reggie, sometimes it was a mystery to Betty how they were even friends. She supposed that was the thing about making friends, and especially at university. For every close friend you gained, you also gained a network of several more acquaintances. People you didn’t really have very much in common with, but who were good friends of friends. Before you knew it, you were spending time with them too, initially just because they were there, and then because you couldn’t remember a time when the two of you didn’t do that. And then, quite by accident, you found yourself in the library with a guy who was writing a 30% assignment that was due in two hours time.

Mercifully, Reggie seemed to go on to sustain something of an academic roll. He refrained from making irrelevant comments for over an hour, and appeared to type several pages. And they were single spaced. Betty had rather lost focus at this point, and looked up in interest when he got up and disappeared without warning. He returned 10 minutes later, textbook in hand, and sat back down next to her. He then proceeded to type at breakneck speed, pausing only a couple of times to refer to his textbook, before finally closing his laptop half an hour later with a flourish.

“Done.”

 _“Done?”_ Betty repeated, staring at him in disbelief.

“Yeah. All sorted. I’ve just gotta hand it in.” He paused to check the time on his phone. “Still got 20 minutes up my sleeve.”

Betty looked back at her referencing, and felt a little bitter. That was all very well for him, but she’d barely made any progress since he arrived.

“You got any plans for this evening?” Reggie asked conversationally, apparently in no rush to make his 20 minute deadline.

Betty shook her head, completely giving up on the pretence of productivity. “Nope, none.”

“Well, that’s no fun,” Reggie commented. “What about your boyfriend?”

_“What?”_

“Your boyfriend Jughead,” Reggie repeated, slowly, and with the air of explaining something very complicated to a very small child.

Betty stared at him, trying to decide what the appropriate response to this was. “Jughead is not my boyfriend,” she said tightly.

“That’s not what I heard,” Reggie chimed, now adopting an irritating sing-song voice.

“Well, you heard wrong.”

“Are you sure?”

 _“Yes!”_ Betty said emphatically, raising her voice a little. This was a concerning development, and it had her suspended somewhere between total panic and complete confusion. She stared at him suspiciously.

“Excuse me?”

Betty and Reggie both turned around. The overearnest guy from her course that Betty didn’t like very much was standing behind them.

“Could you please keep it down?” he asked, clearly irritated. “I’m trying to get some work done and this is the quiet zone.” He gave Betty a reproachful look that clearly indicated he thought she, of all people, ought to know better.

“Sorry,” Reggie said. “Betty’s just having some trouble with her referencing. She’ll try and keep it down though.”

“Thank you.”

He retreated to his study table, and Betty shot Reggie a look of absolute outrage.

Reggie ignored her and checked the time again. “Oops, better go and print this shit out,” he said in an exaggerated whisper, standing up and pushing his chair back in. “Peace out, Betts.”

Betty didn’t respond, and instead watched him leave in stoney silence, all assumptions of resumed normality in pieces.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Brought to you by [@findingbetty](http://www.findingbetty.tumblr.com)
> 
> Special thanks to [@beanie-betty](http://www.beanie-betty.tumblr.com) \- beta extraordinaire, confidant and spirit guide <3


	7. Rumour Has It

Betty packed up her things and made to leave the library not long after Reggie did. After her initial flurry of productivity, she’d really not made quite as much progress on her presentation as she would have liked. But now that word seemed somehow to have spread that her temporary-fake-relationship with Jughead was real, there were other more pressing matters at hand.

Referencing be damned.

In light of the afternoon's development, she really needed to find Jughead. He was generally home fairly early on a Monday afternoon, so her primary objective was to get back to the apartment as quickly as possible. And then when she had tracked him down, she was going to berate him for whatever failing on his part had led Reggie to believe they were together.

She’d had complete faith in Jughead when he’d dismissed her concerns and offered to clarify their relationship status with Archie. Betty had never known him to be anything other than a person of his word, and she trusted him implicitly. But Reggie’s comments had give her reason to believe Jughead hadn’t followed through on his offer. Up until now, Betty had been too concerned about what Archie might think of this unexpected relationship to even consider the possibility of him telling someone else. But Archie shared an apartment with Reggie, and the more Betty thought about it, the more she realised that was likely what he’d done.

Of all the people Betty might have chosen to find out about and then misconstrue her fake relationship, Reggie would undoubtedly be the very last on her list. He was annoying, he enjoyed winding people up, and he was also very good at it. Furthermore, he loved rumours. Now, taking all of this into consideration, Betty realised she’d been a little naive to believe Jughead could cover any and everything up as a ‘misunderstanding’. It was imperative that she find him so the two of them could exercise a little damage control.

It wasn’t until Betty was waiting for the elevator that she became aware just how much damage control might be necessary.

“Hey Betty.”

Betty startled a little, and turned around to see Cheryl appear from behind a bookcase. “Hi Cheryl.”

Cheryl didn’t reply, so they waited for the elevator together in silence.

The elevator seemed to be taking an inexplicably long time, and Betty found herself rather wishing she’d just taken all five flights of stairs. She watched discretely as Cheryl composed what appeared to be a very long, emotive text including a variety of obscure emojis. Betty was never quite sure what to say to Cheryl. Her tone was always clipped, and her actions always came off as more than a little calculated. She made Betty feel on edge at the best of times, and that was never more strongly felt than on occasions when they accidentally crossed paths and Veronica wasn’t there.

“So,” Cheryl announced suddenly, stowing her phone back in her bag, apparently ready to engage. She glanced Betty up and down. “What’s new with you?”

Betty smiled, hoping to come across as polite rather than intimidated. “Not too much. I’ve just been at the library, you know, getting some work done.” She paused, wondering whether it was advisable to return the question. “How about you?” she asked timidly, unavoidable apprehension creeping into her voice.

Cheryl made a dramatic display of flipping her hair over her shoulder and sighed heavily. “Me too,” she said. “Such a busy week.”

It was only Monday, so Betty didn’t see how Cheryl could be suffering the full effects of her busy week already, but it seemed prudent not to argue. When the elevator doors finally opened, Betty and Cheryl stepped inside.

“By the way,” Cheryl added as they descended to the ground floor. “Thanks for having us all over the other weekend. It was a good night.”

Betty cast her mind back an entire week. The party seemed a lifetime ago in the wake of all that had happened since the Lodges’ surprise arrival. She thought briefly of the stains on the carpet and of Reggie’s proclamations of love scrawled in permanent marker over the refrigerator. And then she remembered that this was an uncharacteristically grateful thing for Cheryl to say, and that a little positive reinforcement never went astray. “It was no problem,” Betty lied. “I’m glad you enjoyed it.”

Much to Betty’s relief, it was a relatively quick descent. Betty was about to bid Cheryl farewell when, out of nowhere, she said casually, “I heard about you and Jughead.”

Betty stopped abruptly as they stepped out of the elevator, completely taken aback. At this point, there were all number of Cheryl could have heard about her and Jughead, be it reference to her and Jughead’s drunken misstep, their pretend relationship, or possibly even rumours of their real relationship. Betty found herself thinking she didn’t really want to know which of these it might be, but also that it might be in her best interests to find out.

“What do you mean?” Betty asked, deciding it best to feign total ignorance.

Cheryl gave her a knowing look. “It’s okay,” she said smugly. “I know it’s supposed to be a secret.”

Betty had been prepared for several possible answers, but this was not one of then. She stared at Cheryl blankly as the two of them stood there in the library foyer. “I don’t understand,” Betty said slowly, this time completely honestly.

Cheryl blinked at her. “I heard you two are in a secret relationship,” she said smugly. “I’m happy for the both of you.”

This was a remarkable statement on several levels. For starters, it was a rare occasion that Cheryl expressed happiness at anyone else’s fortune. Interesting character development aside, Betty mentally sorted through all the lies she’d told within the last week, and wondered how on earth they’d filtered through to Cheryl in the form of her and Jughead being in a ‘secret relationship’. It was inexplicable.

“Did Veronica tell you this?” Betty asked, mostly confused, but now also a little suspicious.

Cheryl shook her head, and rolled her eyes dramatically. “I haven’t seen Veronica properly since, like, last Wednesday? She said something about having been busy working on a presentation.”

“I see,” Betty said, knowing full well Veronica that had not been working on a presentation, and reaching the conclusion that she had withheld news of her parents visit from her girlfriend - something that was going to make explaining the origins of this ridiculous rumour all the more difficult.

“Reggie told me,” Cheryl volunteered, when Betty didn’t enquire further.

Of _course_ he did. “Right. Well, that’s actually not true,” Betty tried. “I’m not sure where Reggie heard that but-”

Cheryl interrupted Betty’s attempts at explanation with a laugh. “Oh I know, I know,” she said, dismissing Betty’s explanation. “It’s a _secret_ ,” she smirked. “Don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone.”

Betty, prepared to concede that denial was exactly what a person in a ‘secret relationship’ _would_ do, couldn’t really find an appropriate response.

“Anyway,” Cheryl said, resuming her usual clipped tone. “Toodles.” She wiggled her fingers in farewell, then turned on her heel and strutted off, the click of her heels echoing through the library foyer.

Betty watched her go, realising she was dealing with a rather more widespread rumour than she’d initially thought. Perhaps, she thought, it would be pertinent to also find Veronica.

 

&&&

 

She waited outside Veronica’s lecture theatre for twelve minutes. She knew Veronica had economics last thing on a Monday, so was fairly certain she would be able to corner her on her way out of the lecture theatre. Betty hovered off to the side of the door as students began to emerge, and called “Veronica!” as she caught sight of her amongst the crowd.

Veronica turned around at the sound of her name and waved, before making her way back towards Betty.

“I wasn’t expecting to see you again today,” Veronica said, surprised.

“Mmm,” Betty acknowledged, finding this observation both unnecessary and irrelevant in light of the circumstances. “Listen, we have a problem.”

Veronica was now rummaging through her bag for something. “Do we?” she asked absently, sounding only mildly interested.

“Yes. Reggie has been spreading rumours about me and Jughead.”

Veronica looked up, interest suddenly piqued. “Oh yeah,” came her vague response. “I know about that.”

“You _know_? And you didn’t think to mention that when I saw you at lunch?”

“Hey!” Veronica interjected, suddenly defensive. “I didn’t find out until after we had lunch. I saw Reggie in the economics department, and he told me you and Jughead were in, and I quote, ‘a secret relationship’.”

Betty stared at her, baffled. “And what did _you_ say?” she asked, once again finding she was not sure she actually wanted to know.

“I acted surprised.”

“You _what_?”

“I wasn’t supposed to know!” Veronica reminded her, defensive all over again. “It’s a secret.”

“It’s not a _secret_ ,” Betty objected. “It’s an outright lie! It’s a rumour. Also, I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to deny rumours of being in a ‘secret relationship’, but I can attest it’s really difficult to do so convincingly.”

Veronica nodded somewhat understandingly, and said unhelpfully, “I can see how that would be a problem.”

This was ridiculous. Betty pressed her fingers to her temples, at a loss to know what to do. In the great scheme of things, it didn’t really matter if their friends thought she and Jughead were together. But also, it _did_. It all came down to a disconcerting lack of agency, to being the subject of a rumour that was categorially untrue. Veronica had started this, Jughead appeared to have failed in his quest to cover it up, and Reggie had stumbled across it and run away with it completely. It remained to be seen whether Reggie actually believed what he was telling everyone, but either way, Betty wasn’t sure who to be most incensed by.

“Okay,” Betty decided. “First of all, we are not friends with Reggie anymore.”

Veronica looked moderately disappointed.

“And second of all,” Betty added, “we need to find Jughead, and we need to have a conversation with him.”

Veronica shifted her weight from one foot to the other, and wrinkled her nose a little. “Yeah, when you say ‘we’,” she said delicately, her fingers sketching quote marks in the air, “are you suggesting that I come too?”

“It’s not a suggestion. You’re coming.”

Veronica tilted her head a little, and smiled at Betty in such a way that made it quite clear she was displeased. But as far as Betty was concerned, Veronica had gotten her into this situation, and the very least she could do was help her find a way out.

To her credit, Veronica allowed Betty to guide her outside, and they set off together across campus in the direction of the apartment. In the ten minutes it took for them to make this journey, Betty listened to her regale a lengthy story about how she’d lent someone in her tutorial a textbook, only for them to return it over a week late.

“It just made my life so much more difficult,” Veronica implored as they approached the apartment building.

“I wonder what it must be like to have one’s life made difficult,” Betty observed dryly.

 

&&&

 

Irritated though she was by the time she got back to the apartment, Betty was pleased to find that Jughead was at least home.

She was even more pleased when Veronica discarded her coat haphazardly on the couch, and Jughead felt compelled to pick it up and hang it neatly on a hook by the door. That was the kind of thing that irked him far more than any accusatory comment Betty might have been able to come up with, and she felt he deserved it - both for his negligence, and his prolonged absence.

As it turned out, the explanation for his absence was reasonably simple; he’d been avoiding her. His sheepish demeanor made this rather apparent to Betty, as she first questioned him of his whereabouts over the weekend, and then prodded him for information about his conversation with Archie. True to his word, Jughead had actually spoken with Archie. Alas, it was also revealed that, before he’d had a chance to do so, Archie had mentioned news of their surprising and unexpected coupling to Reggie. Predictably, Reggie had found this extremely interesting.

Veronica rapidly lost interest in the details of this discussion, and was by now inspecting the pantry for something to eat. Jughead, however, was leaning against the kitchen counter, arms crossed. Betty paced back and forth. She felt a little guilty about having doubted him earlier, but remained irritated nonetheless.

“So. Did you tell Reggie it was all a ‘misunderstanding’ too?” Betty demanded.

“Yes, I did,” Jughead answered carefully, in the kind of level voice he reserved for delicate situations. “And he believed me. But, you know Reggie, he also seemed to think it would be a hilarious joke to tell everyone we were sneaking around.”

“It is _kind of_ funny,” Veronica chimed in, choosing a particularly inopportune time to rejoin the conversation. “Not that I condone lying, of course.”

Betty scoffed, and then rounded on her. “Not helping,” she quipped, before turning back to Jughead. “Well, he told both Cheryl and Veronica that we were 'secretly dating'. Do you know how hard it is to convincingly deny being in a ‘secret relationship’?”

“Mmm,” Jughead acknowledged, and Betty got the distinct impression he was only just realising this was not all going to go away of its own accord if he ignored it. “That’s also what he told Moose, Midge and Kevin.”

Clearly it was far too late for damage control.

“Ohhh,” Veronica interrupted, as if struck by a sudden realisation. “I haven’t seen Kevin in such a long-”

“Veronica!” Betty and Jughead admonished in unison, suddenly united in their irritation at her refusal to take this seriously. She had the decency to look somewhat apologetic.

“This is largely your fault,” Jughead reminded her, pointing his finger accusingly. “This has all come about because we agreed to pretend we were dating to help _you_.”

Veronica’s eyes darted back and forwards between Betty and Jughead. “I realise that,” she said evenly. “And I want you to know that I am sorry, and that it will never happen again. Even when my parents come back for graduation. But I do think you both need to remember who’s really at fault here, and that’s-”

“You!” Betty interjected childishly, suddenly wondering why she’d ever thought it a good idea to involve Veronica in this.

“No,” Veronica corrected, adopting an overly patient air. “Reggie.”

“Yeah, well, I’m mad at him too,” Betty concurred. Now that she realised Reggie didn’t even believe this rumour, and that it was all just a joke, it somehow seemed even less funny.

“Exactly,” Veronica went on, still persisting with that overly patient air. “Don’t you want to get him back?”

Neither Betty or Jughead said anything, sure she had entirely missed the point. Betty had to admit that was an appealing idea - it was almost always an appealing idea. But it came second to wanting to set the truth straight. In light of her conversation with Cheryl earlier, that seemed like it might be difficult to achieve. 

When no one responded, Veronica continued anyway. “Why don’t you just go along with all of this? If Reggie thinks it’s so funny to start a rumour the two of you are secretly dating, why don’t start telling people you actually _are_ dating. Catch him off guard.”

“No,” Jughead said flatly.

“Absolutely not,” Betty added.

But the more time Veronica spent justifying this idea, the more it almost started to make sense. If people wanted to believe that she and Jughead were dating, why not let them? Betty actually quite liked the idea of regaining a little control over the situation, one that had seemed so very far out of her control to begin with. And it would surely do wonders for Reggie’s ego to throw him off a little, give him a little taste of his own medicine. Then, in a week or so’s time, she and Jughead could formally ‘break up’, and everyone could move on with their lives.

A small, petty part of Betty she didn’t like very much also wondered quietly if, perhaps, as Veronica had mentioned earlier, such a ploy might also make Archie jealous. She’d been reluctant to fall into that way of thinking, feeling it would ultimately reflect poorly on her. But now that she was realising it was far more difficult to get out of a fake relationship than to get into one, there didn’t seem to be any harm in capitalising on it a little along the way.

Jughead proved a little harder to convince, accusing Veronica of seizing this twist as an opportunity alleviate some of her own guilt. Betty might have agreed with him on that, but for the fact that Veronica had already demonstrated fairly characteristic lack of concern for the consequences of her own actions. It wasn’t until Veronica marched over to the refrigerator and shifted the page of his course outline that Betty had used to cover up the permanent marker that he faltered.

“I suppose it could be amusing to mess with Reggie,” he said, slowly coming around to the idea.

Veronica, renowned lover of rumours, gossip and revenge, clapped gleefully. “It’s _perfect_.”

Betty wouldn’t go so far as to say that it was perfect. Aspects of this ploy left rather a lot to be desired. But in light of the circumstances, it did seem like it had the potential to be a rewarding way forward.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. This was a complex chapter to write. Would love to hear from you - if you enjoyed it, or even if you're just confused haha (then I can make any necessary amendments!)  
> Until next time, [@findingbetty](http://www.findingbetty.tumblr.com) ♥️
> 
> Special thanks to beta extraordinaire [@beanie-betty](http://www.beanie-betty.tumblr.com) x


	8. Bad Liar

As it turned out, it was much easier to go along with rumours than to deny them.

By the end of the week, Betty was almost ready to call the experience fun. It was true that she’d reneged entirely on her earlier resolution to tell fewer lies, but perhaps that was something she could work on later in the month. For now, it was extremely diverting to watch everyone she and Jughead knew embrace the concept of them dating with such enthusiasm. Even Jughead, initially so full of reservations, seemed to be enjoying himself somewhat.

Betty had been a bit surprised by how taken everybody was with the idea. It was alarmingly easy to circulating rumours about oneself, even allowing for Reggie having originally planted the seed. All Betty and Jughead had really had to do was confirm their supposed ‘secret relationship’ was real when they bumped into friends on campus, and just like that, they were presumed ’together’. There hadn’t even been any need for Betty and Jughead to make a joint appearance while doing so to be convincing. Everyone was already convinced.

Everyone except Reggie, that was.

Quite by chance, it was several days before either Betty or Jughead actually crossed paths with Reggie again. Though unusual, this was perhaps not entirely unexpected. Giddy delights of spreading rumours about herself aside, Betty’s week had been subject to numerous academic commitments – including her wretched presentation – and so there hadn’t really been any time to actively seek him out. Jughead had been equally busy, and from what she’d gathered lately of Reggie’s studying habits, it was conceivable he too was similarly placed, laughable a concept though that may once have seemed.

A direct result of all of this was that Betty and Jughead at least had plenty of time to get their story straight, and to iron out any inconsistencies. (This was perhaps just as well, since Jughead had theorised Reggie would be a little less easily convinced than everyone else.) And yet, somehow Betty still wasn’t quite prepared for her surprise encounter with Reggie when he showed up at the library during her last shift of the week.

“Sup Betts.”

Betty looked up from the book she was reading to see Reggie standing in front of the library issue desk, his arms full of textbooks. “Hi,” she said warily, registering first surprise at his appearance, and then a sinking feeling that seemed to confirm for her that she’d been subconsciously hoping Jughead would be the one to run into him first.

“How can I help you?”

Reggie grinned broadly. “Just dropping by to see my favourite librarian.”

Betty raised her eyebrows.

“And also to check out these tomes,” he added, casually dropping the stack of books on the counter in front of her.

Tomes indeed, Betty thought, staring at them. “Bit of light reading,” she heard him say, and wondered briefly if he’d always taken such an interest in ‘economic growth and development’ and ‘fiscal policy’.

He became more and more of an enigma with every passing day.

Betty looked back up at Reggie and asked, “Do you have your student ID?”

“Nah.”

She held back a heavy sigh. Nobody ever brought their student ID to the issue desk, and it was a source of immense frustration for her. It made the issue process take twice as long as it might otherwise have done, all because the absence of a student ID necessitated a complicated search function to locate the students’ personal library account. Fortunately, Betty already knew all of Reggie’s details, so at least she wasn’t going to have to question him about the precise spelling of his surname. But still.

“So how’s your week been?”

Betty didn’t look up, still filtering through lists of students with last names starting with ‘M’ in the hope of finding Reggie’s account. “Yeah, good thanks,” she said absently, squinting at the tiny font on the screen.

“And how are things with Jughead?”

Betty stopped scrolling.

She continued staring intently at her computer screen while she tried to remember how she’d rehearsed this. There was something unsettling about Reggie’s tone that seemed to suggest that he’d heard what she and Jughead had been telling people all week, and didn’t quite believe it.

Betty had been so prepared for this conversation, but somehow it was already not going quite the way she’d hoped. Not that conversations with Reggie ever really went the way she expected - it seemed almost foolish now for her to have assumed it would go as such. But she and Jughead had committed to all of this, and no matter how foolish an idea it might have been, now was hardly the time to fold. She had to try.

Betty looked up and cleared her throat. “He’s good,” she said, keeping her voice even.

Reggie, now leaning against the side of the issue desk with his arms folded, smirked at her. It was all the confirmation Betty really needed to know that he genuinely didn’t believe her.

“Is that so,” he said smugly.

“Yup.” Betty redirected her attention back to her search of the library database. It struck her as ridiculous that the whole reason she’d concocted this elaborate plan was because he’d insisted she and Jughead were together, and now that she was telling him that was the case, he was refusing to believe her.

Reggie was not easily dissuaded by her attempts to refocus on the task at hand. “So how long has this been going on?” he pressed. “This fake relationship business?”

“It’s not a fake relationship,” Betty retorted, looking back up, and sounding more defensive than she might have liked. “Jughead and have been together for a couple of weeks.”

It sounded sounded impossibly rehearsed, and that was probably because it was.

Reggie scoffed. “No you haven’t. I made that up.”

“Yes we have!”

“Since when, then?” he demanded.

“I don’t remember exactly,” Betty said airily, realising that for all their preparation, she and Jughead hadn’t actually agreed on this significant detail yet. An amateur mistake.

“Mmm,” Reggie nodded. “Sometimes I really struggle to remember things that never happened too.”

Betty blinked at him pointedly. She didn’t want to accidentally contradict something Jughead might already have told someone else, but Reggie was leaving her with no choice but to offer some point of reference for all of this. She abandoned all pretence of trying to locate Reggie’s details in the library database, leaned back in her chair, and folded her arms. “Since the party at our apartment.”

(That was almost plausible. That was barely even a lie.)

Reggie grinned at her. “Okay, Betts,” he said, appearing to suspend his disbelief briefly. “So, I suppose the two of you will be joining us for housewarming drinks on Sturday? Together?”

_No._

This was yet another scenario Betty hadn’t quite prepared for. There were several things she was hoping to achieve this weekend, and spending the evening with Reggie and his flatmates, all of whom were likely to be in various states of intoxication, was simply not one of them. But because ‘no’ seemed for all the world like the answer Reggie was expecting, Betty cast all of her doubts aside and smiled sweetly at him.

“Of course.”

“Great. I’ll believe it when I see it.”

“You will,” Betty assured him, sounding rather more confident than she felt.

She resumed her search for Reggie’s student yet again, all the time conscious that Reggie was watching her with something of an amused expression. She ignored him, instead focusing on issuing his textbooks, and tucking the docket in one of the front covers. “All due back in two weeks time,” she told him, sliding the books across the issue desk.

“Cheers. Will you and Jughead still be together in two weeks time?”

Betty closed her eyes briefly, thinking this plan of Veronica’s had many more flaws than anyone had first envisaged. “Yup.”

Reggie, still grinning, backed away from the issue desk with his textbooks, before waving in farewell and turning around to head off towards the stairwell.

Betty watched him go, wondering how on earth she was going to convince Jughead to attend drinks at Reggie’s with her tomorrow night.

 

&&&

 

She should never have agreed to this.

Betty had known that all along, really. But now that it was Saturday, and now that she’d spent the better part of a week lying to everybody that Jughead was her boyfriend, the full extent of this realisation had well and truly sunken in. She’d reached the conclusion that the whole fake relationship scheme was like so very many of Veronica schemes; good in theory, but rather more complicated in practice. Betty’s encounter with Reggie at the library had disassembled all of her earlier positive impressions of having a fake boyfriend. Having a fake boyfriend was actually very time consuming.

It might even have been more time-consuming than having a real boyfriend, although given she hadn’t ever really had a real boyfriend, she wasn’t sure she was entirely qualified to pass that judgement. Her previous dating experience was fairly limited. That was not for want of opportunity, but because that was the thing about holding out hope for someone who never seemed to quite notice you were there. The less they noticed you, the more you wanted them to, and the harder it became to justify - or indeed to let go. And even though Betty recognised this as an unhealthy cycle, that didn’t make it any easier to extricate herself from and move on.

To the best of her knowledge, Jughead didn’t have a particularly extensive dating history either. Mind you, he was sufficiently secretive that Betty could well have been wrong about that. Until very recently, the topic of dating had remained one of those things they just didn’t discuss. It was simply off limits, along with other potentially contentious matters like family, and delicate friendships, and plans beyond graduation. Since she and Jughead seemed to have accidentally stumbled across that boundary, Betty was starting to realise that simply avoiding things was not without its consequences.

Kind of like lying.

There had certainly been plenty of that of late. Betty had a nasty suspicion it was all going to start catching up with her at some point in the reasonably near future, but she would deal with that when the time came. In the meantime, she really needed to tell Jughead about their joint plans for Saturday evening.

She deferred doing so until that morning, thinking it best to give him minimal notice and allow him minimal time to back out. Although Jughead had been complicit in telling lies all week, neither of them had ever really agreed to the idea of parading their fake relationship in front of everyone. And it was all very well telling everyone they were together, but it would be quite a different matter acting as such.

“I can’t believe people are so gullible,” Jughead observed, reflecting on the week’s events while they ate breakfast.

Now seemed as good a time as ever to tell him that, actually, Reggie had proved not to be gullible at all. “Did you see Reggie yesterday?” Betty asked.

“Nope. Still haven’t run into him. But if I had, I would have revelled in telling him you were my girlfriend,” Jughead said cheerfully.

This sounded promising, though didn’t confirm whether Jughead would also revel in showing him. “I did."

Jughead sat up a little in his seat, interest piqued. “What did he say?”

“Well,” Betty recalled, somewhat delicately, “he said he would believe it when he saw it.”

There was a long pause while Jughead considered this. He put his spoon down, looking a little apprehensive, and then confirmed as much by saying, “I don’t know that I like where this is going.”

Betty grimaced, preparing for resistance. “It’s going to drinks at Reggie’s tomorrow evening. Together.”

Jughead stared at her disbelievingly. “I thought you weren’t going to that. _I_ wasn’t even gonna go to that.”

A valid point. He was correct in thinking Betty had not been planning on attending. But sometimes plans changed, academic priorities became less important, and substantiating false rumours became more so. If this was what it was going to take to get Reggie to believe them, then so be it. She’d be there. And hopefully, so would Jughead.

“I mean, it wasn’t part of the plan,” Betty agreed. “But I knew Reggie thought I was going to say ‘no’ when he suggested it. So I had to say ‘yes’.”

Jughead gave her a look, and Betty could tell that he wanted, with every fibre of his being, to abandon all of this. But she’d only ever known him to be a person of his word, and she supposed that was why he shrugged, and said, “I suppose it has to be done.” He stared at her for a moment longer, and then added, “What’s another fake relationship charade in the great scheme of things?”

Betty wasn’t sure if this was a rhetorical question or a real one, wasn’t sure if she was supposed to offer a response. It was a feeling of uncertainty she never really encountered with him, and it was slightly unsettling. Deciding it best not to say anything at all, and in attempt to mitigate the awkward silence, she deflected his attention by reaching hastily for her glass of orange juice.

Jughead stared at her, bewildered, and Betty suddenly remembered it wasn’t her glass of orange juice at all. It was his. “Sorry,” she said, mildly flustered, putting the glass back down as quickly as she’d picked it up. “My mistake.”

She knew that he knew it was a mistake, but Jughead arched an eyebrow at her anyway. “We don’t share orange juice.” His voice was void of any amusement, but his eyes betrayed a faint smile. “You’re my fake girlfriend, not my real girlfriend.”

 

&&&

 

Betty’s instructions were fairly simple.

She didn’t want to overcomplicate matters, didn’t want Jughead to be weighed down with unnecessary lines or cues. All she’d asked - albeit a little dryly - was that he act like she was the girl of his dreams, to which he had rolled his eyes. This response didn’t instill her with a huge amount of faith, but then, she’d been worried about that last time they pretended to be a couple too, and that had worked out just fine. In fact, she half suspected he mostly just enjoyed setting her on edge and making her nervous.

"So, you understand the plan?" Betty clarified as they were about to leave.

"Sure," Jughead intoned. "You're my fake girlfriend, my future fake bride. The future mother of my fake children!" 

Betty stared at him reproachfully. She decided it was best to just expect the unexpected, and see what happened.

The walk to Reggie’s apartment was no more than 5 minutes long, it being just a short distance a few blocks up. Such was the nature of living in close student quarters. Jughead spent most of this walk complaining about a particularly vexatious customer he’d encountered during his shift at the university bookshop earlier that day. Betty listened to his regalling of this story with some amusement; not because she enjoyed his struggles, but because he just always seemed to enjoy complaining about them.

It had been awhile since she’d visited Reggie and his roommates, and that was largely because Reggie showed up at her and Jughead’s so frequently. However, she remembered their apartment well enough. It was a difficult one to forget. As she and Jughead made their way along a narrow, dimly lit hall that smelled faintly of mould, Betty found herself thinking her own living situation could not be further removed from that of the typical student experience.

Not everyone, she supposed, was able to sublet a two bedroom apartment from their wealthy friend.

Getting Jughead to actually attend this event had been the first hurdle of the evening. It was only now that they were almost at the party that Betty really started to think about all the possible ways this could go wrong. Not only did she and Jughead have to put on a convincing act for Reggie, but she was also starting to take into consideration the wide array of other people within their social circle that would likely be there. She hadn't spoken to Veronica in recent days, but could almost count on her being in attendance. That in itself was a little alarming - although all of this had been Veronica's grand idea, she was a renown gossip, and entirely capable of giving spilling everyone's secrets while under the influence of tequila. Archie was also guaranteed to be there, seeing as it was his apartment too, and Betty had to prepare for the possibility that Valerie would make an appearance.

This was not a collection of people Betty would have voluntarily opted to confront en mass at this stage in her fake relationship. 

Betty and Jughead paused outside the door to the apartment and looked at each other apprehensively. There seemed to be an awful lot of audible commotion coming from inside, especially considering the night was still fairly young.

“I’m sorry,” Betty offered, suddenly feeling a little guilty for coercing him to take part in all of this against his will, and apologising in advance for whatever might be about to take place.

To her surprise, Jughead chuckled. And then he reached up and adjusted his hat a little, exhaling slowly. “No you’re not." There was a subtle smile in his voice.

Betty frowned. “Yes, I am,” she reiterated. She wanted him to know that this was at least a genuine sentiment.

“You said that last time,” he pointed out.

Betty opened her mouth, and then closed it again. Because what he said was true. Genuinely sorry people didn’t drag others into their tangled web of lies again, and again.

“It’s okay though,” Jughead added, an apparent attempt to assuage her concerns somewhat. He shrugged good-naturedly, and despite all of her apprehension, Betty was briefly overwhelmed by a rush of gratitude. 

There was an odd sort of tension in the air that Betty hadn’t noticed before. But she had only a brief moment to ponder where it might have come from, and then Jughead cleared his throat.

"So," he announced. "Ready?" 

Betty took a deep breath. Somehow she was going to have to reign in Veronica, convince Reggie, subtly instil a little jealousy in Archie, and ward off Valerie. And all within the space of one evening.

What could possibly go wrong?

She nodded. And then Jughead took her hand in his, and knocked on the apartment door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks to my friend [@beanie-betty](http://www.beanie-betty.tumblr.com) for being the supportive, calming beta a findingbetty needs <3


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